We've Shared the Rules, and This Is What's Working:Caregiver and Child Welfare Staff Experiences with Shared Parenting

Background and Purpose:

Shared parenting is an intentional practice of developing collaborative relationships between child welfare staff, caregivers, and parents. While shared parenting is considered a potentially important element for promoting family connections and reunification from foster care, it may not be widely used due to numerous factors (Klein-Cox et al, 2024). Additionally, few studies have examined the pragmatic and day-to-day experiences of caregivers and staff with shared parenting. As part of a larger project aimed at supporting kinship care and shared parenting, this study sought to explore how shared parenting was perceived and applied in one state’s foster care system. Our research questions were: What do staff and caregivers perceive to be the key facilitators and barriers to prioritizing shared parenting in foster care?

Method:

We conducted focus groups with 62 child welfare staff and 22 non-relative and kinship caregivers in one Midwestern state. Questions focused on their perceptions of the facilitators and barriers of shared parenting. Focus groups were held by Zoom, video-recorded, and transcripts professionally transcribed. Transcripts were coded and analyzed in Dedoose by four research team members, using thematic analysis principles. We addressed rigor and trustworthiness through audit trail, multiple reads, paired coding, peer debriefing, and member checking.

Results:

Thematic analyses identified facilitators and barriers at micro, mezzo, and macro levels. At the micro level, individual attitudes of caregivers and caseworkers were described as facilitators. These included authentic valuing of family connections, vigorous belief in parents’ strengths and capacities, and nonjudgmental, positive regard for the parent. Additionally, interpersonal relationships between caregivers and parents were discussed frequently and included ideas around direct contact and frequency of contact, and how this contact can sometimes minimize fears and nourish collaborative caregiving approaches. At the mezzo level, organizational policies that allow flexibility and responsiveness for supportive kin and parents were noted as critical facilitators. Conversely, ambiguity in agency policy, as well as policy myths, were viewed as problematic. Other barriers included individual attitudes and beliefs (e.g., fear of loss of control by staff and caregivers) and interpersonal dynamics (e.g., pre-existing family conflict, safety concerns). Finally, macro level factors were seen as barriers, most prominently mentioned as court mandates that constrained and devalued family connections.

Implications/Conclusion:

This study’s findings are consistent with others that have identified the micro level issues that contribute to the challenges and successes of shared parenting in foster care settings (e.g., Klein-Cox et al, 2024; Spielfogel & Leathers, 2022). Yet, this study may offer potentially novel findings by exploring multiple levels of factors. Our findings suggested that organizational policies and court practices impacted the degree to which the child welfare context was hospitable to shared parenting. Future research is necessary to integrate birth parents’ perspectives and continue to explore factors that can promote or impede shared parenting. Also, more comparative research is needed to broaden the knowledge base on which micro, mezzo, and macro practices and strategies may be used to positively influence shared parenting and promote strong family connections and, ultimately, stable and permanent families.