Equipping resource parents with the knowledge and attitudes to effectively parent teens: Results from the CORE Teen training program

Alanna Feltner, Angelique Day, Lori Vanderwill, Emma Fontaine, Sue Cohick - Children and Youth Services Review

Abstract

Given the high rates of placement disruptions for teenagers, a need exists for resource parents (the collective term for foster, adoptive, kinship, and guardian caregivers) who are both willing and able to care for teenagers. In response to this need, we created Critical On-going Resource Family Education (CORE) Teen, a comprehensive foster parent training program designed to provide resource parents with the knowledge and skills to support teens in their care. A one-way repeated measures ANOVA compared the results from participants at the pretest (N=188), posttest (N=130), and follow up taken 90 days after training completion (N=118). The results from trainings conducted across four states and one tribal nation indicate that participants demonstrated significant improvements in training competencies and characteristics in a number of factors related to parenting teenagers.