Trauma and the Teen Years
Creating a Family: Talk about Adoption, Foster & Kinship Care
03/29/25
•11m
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Question: I wish I had known what to expect when a child with trauma hit the teen years. Maybe a book suggestion of what to expect or resources on what may show up and how to handle it. Puberty and the teen years have hit our family HARD. I also notice other families with adopted children going through the same or similar things. ~Rebecca from Kansas
Resources:
- Therapy Resources for Adoptive, Foster, and Kinship Families
- Center for Parent and Teen Communication
- Parenting in the Eye of the Storm: The Adoptive Parent’s Guide to Navigating the Teen Years
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
Previous Episode
Partnering With Relatives for Kinship Care
March 26, 2025
•52m
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Why is kinship care important, and what are some of the challenges? Our guests are Gregory Jones, a granddad raising five grandkids from birth to now ranging in age from 9 to 12; Ana Beltran, an attorney, and director of the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network: A National Technical Assistance Center; and Erica Burgess, a social worker with over 25 years of experience in child welfare, specializing in kinship care.
In this episode, we discuss:
- How common is kinship care throughout the US—both formal (child welfare involved) and informal?
- Grandparents raising grandkids or aunts and uncles raising nephews and nieces is often complicated and comes with a mix of challenges and blessings.
- What are some of the blessings?
- What are some of the challenges?
- Managing the relationship between the caregiver and the parents.
- What are some common challenges in this relationship?
- What are some common boundaries that need to be set in kinship care?
- Lack of preparation and training for raising kids who have experienced trauma, neglect, prenatal exposure to alcohol or drugs, etc.
- Lack of financial support.
- How can social workers and child welfare professionals make sure that kinship caregivers get the full extent of financial support?
- Access to resources. What are some typical resources that kinship caregivers should ask about and that child welfare agencies should consider providing?
- We see a significant variance between jurisdictions in social workers and child welfare professionals in the embrace of placing children with relatives.
- Why are some social workers hesitant to place kids with relatives?
- From an ethical perspective, why must social workers open their minds to looking for kin first when removing a child from their parents?
- Placing children with kin rather than the state taking custody. (Hidden foster care/kinship diversion)
- Legal considerations
- Ethical considerations with the hidden foster.
Great resources:
- Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network: A National Technical Assistance Center
- Grandfacts: State Fact Sheets for Grandparents and Other Relatives Raising Children
- NCKinshipFamilies.org - Legal Permanency Options for NC Kinship Families website
- Free Kinship Legal Clinic
- Kinship Caregivers and the Child Welfare System
- Online Kinship Support Group - email tracy@creatingafamily.org
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
Next Episode
Taming Sibling Squabbles
April 2, 2025
•55m
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Do your kids fight? Does it drive you crazy. Join us to learn some helpful tips for handling sibling rivalry and fighting. Our guest is Dr. Laura Markham, a clinical psychologist and author of several books, including Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids and Peaceful Parent, Happy Siblings: How To Stop the Fighting and Raise Friends for Life.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Why do siblings squabble?
- How is sibling rivalry and sibling fighting a good thing for our kids?
- How to teach sharing?
- What are the warning signs that a sibling fight has gone beyond a useful tool for developing those skills? When do we step in to stop sibling squabbles?
- What’s an effective way for parents to step into these sibling fights?
- How to handle rivalry based on one child thinking you favor the other?
- What about verbal aggression, name-calling, etc?
- A struggle common to kids impacted by trauma is a delay in emotional and social skill development. Identifying and managing internal discomfort can be challenging for our kids. Or all feelings are disproportionate to their situation (both bigger and smaller or shut down).
- Can you speak to what helps kids develop these skills outside the moments of conflict?
- What practical strategies can you offer to help parents cultivate satisfying, loving relationships between siblings?
- Would you offer a word about self-care for parents raising kids who fight all the time?
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
- Weekly podcasts
- Weekly articles/blog posts
- Resource pages on all aspects of family building
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