Conference Agenda

Child welfare system exposure to parents and children is traumatic on multiple levels. Racialized poverty is also traumatic and compounded by CPS supervision. We document the ways in which system inflicted traumatic experiences of 87 Black moms manifests in their daily lives and interactions with others. Participants completed a qualitative, voice recorded, electronic survey to capture the impact of surveillance related to child neglect. Trauma is inflicted by punitive systems oversight and sadly manifests across generations. These ongoing harms result in an unavoidable recall of working memory related to CPS surveillance and thusly, related to parenting choices, behaviors, and expectations of approval or disapproval. The presence of authorities with the power to disrupt one’s family is a pervasive and enduring trauma. Moms report that they and their children are overall traumatized by CPS-exposure, domestic violence abusers are weaponized against them, and also community-level trauma from surveillance in general (e.g., police, schools, medical settings). Further, themes identified as trauma are living in poverty, persistent fear of family disruption, and ongoing anxiety during interactions with authorities. Parental decision-making is negatively impacted by these pervasive traumatic experiences.

Black mothers in poverty and surveilled by the child welfare system face systemic control that impacts their parental behavior in disturbing ways. Mothers are held accountable for structural harms and parenting challenges, and ultimately punished for situations outside of their control. Given their exposure to and oversight by CPS authorities, they are compelled to navigate society in ways we often don’t consider. We present a phenomenological account of the lived experiences of 87 Black CPS-impacted moms related to their mental well being whilst enduring systemic control of the child welfare system in the U.S. Participants completed a qualitative, voice recorded, electronic survey to capture the impact of surveillance related to child neglect. A theme emerged concerning how persistent oversight compels mothers to interact with the world from a place of fear and a need to be hyper-vigilant in documenting acceptable parenting behaviors. They feel punished for having/needing jobs, financial challenges, and blamed for deleterious family functioning related to domestic violence - scapegoated for poor parenting. Moms articulate being fearful of opening up to others, unexpected knocks on the door, and they know the importance of documenting compliance of mandated activities to avoid the removal of their children from their homes.

Introduction: Parents are affected when their offspring engages in non-fatal suicidal behaviour. Although research exists on parents’ mental and emotional state when they realise this behaviour, little attention has been devoted to exploring how their parental identity is affected.

Purpose: To explore how parents re-constructed and negotiated their parental identity after realising that their offspring was suicidal.

Method: Semi-structured interviews with 21 Danish parents were conducted. Interviews were transcribed, analysed thematically and interpreted by drawing on the interactionist concepts of negotiated identity and moral career.

Findings: Parents’ perspectives on their parental identity were conceptualised as a moral career encompassing three stages. Entry into the first stage, disrupted parental identity, occurred when parents realised that they could lose their offspring to suicide. At this stage, parents trusted their own abilities to help their offspring. This trust was gradually undermined by social encounters, which caused career movement. In the second stage, impasse, parents lost faith in their ability to help their offspring. Whereas some parents gradually resigned entirely to impasse, others regained their trust in their own abilities through social interaction in the third stage, restored parental agency.

Conclusion: Social interaction was fundamental if parents were to re-construct their disrupted parental identity.

The child welfare and protection system are facing with severe difficulties, lack of services and professionals (Racz at al 2019, Racz-Sik 2020). In Hungary raising school-age children and facing different learning and behavioural backgrounds, psychiatric problems or children affected by peer abuse parents have different strategies in order to avoid the state care system. The outcome of this research shows the possibilities, leeway for manoeuvre the parents have to avoid the state care system, or to find access to good quality private services. In this qualitative research 22 interview were conducted with family members and 21 with professionals. To get effective help for their children, parents often have to buy special services in the private field since the state funded services are fully booked for month, or out of services because of the lack of proper professionals. The strategies in the narratives are often based on an understanding of good parenting.