Building trust: A multiple case study of teenagers’ and foster parents’ relationships

This multiple case study explores the experiences of five teenagers in foster care and their foster parents in Denmark, focusing on their perceptions of foster care and relationship dynamics. Through qualitative interviews, three key themes emerged: (1) The impact of early traumatic experiences on current wellbeing; (2) Foster parent–teenager relationships; (3) Relationships with biological families, where teenagers maintain differing levels of contact and express mixed feelings. Drawing on Fonagy and Allison’s (2014) concept of epistemic trust, as applied to foster care by Sprecher (2023) , the study highlights the complexities of foster parent–teenager relationships, illustrating both challenges and the potential for trust and connection. While some teenagers experienced strong, supportive relationships with their foster parents, others faced difficulties in developing epistemic trust and fully integrating into their foster families. Discrepancies between foster parent and teenager perspectives suggest that foster parents are generally less optimistic than the teenagers themselves regarding their foster teenagers’ future outlook. These findings highlight the importance of relationship-based practice in foster care, where understanding each teenager's individual relational history and trust needs may be crucial for supporting positive development.