Purpose: As our awareness of the prevalence and impact of trauma increases, so has the need for trauma-informed practices and interventions. Within child welfare, parent training is an important mechanism for supporting children and families. The purpose of this scoping review was to explore the ways in which trauma-informed parent training programs were used in the child welfare system.
Materials and Methods: The search included studies written in English, could be representative of interventions delivered globally, identified using trauma-informed approaches, served caregivers/parents involved with child welfare.
Results: Twenty-four studies were identified and included for review. The majority of studies were designed for foster or resource parents with a focus on helping the child’s trauma symptoms. Four studies were designed for birth parents and addressed parent own trauma and how that influences their parenting.
Discussion: Findings across all studies indicated that there were significant improvements in study variables for both children and parents. Group format was the most prominent intervention delivery method. A description of trauma content covered in each intervention and unique trauma-informed components of interventions were identified.
Conclusion: Based on the review, it is clear that trauma-informed parent training is a growing area with most studies being completed within the last 5–7 years. Information in this review can be used by interventions interested in supporting children and families in child welfare through a trauma-informed lens, of which this scoping review shows promise of incorporating.