Examining child trauma knowledge among kin caregivers: Implications for practice, policy, and research

This exploratory study investigated kinship (e.g., relative) caregivers’ (N = 130) perceived and actual knowledge associated with child trauma. Results indicate that whilst participants perceived themselves to be knowledgeable about child trauma, they were more neutral as to whether other kinship providers held child trauma knowledge. Overall, discrepancy scores between perceived and actual knowledge variables indicate that participants may be more knowledgeable about child trauma than they perceived. Though whether or not participants had received child trauma training did impact discrepancy scores, the number of trainings received bore no relationship on child trauma knowledge. In general, findings from this study suggest the need for more adept training models related to kinship caregivers and trauma, and underscore the need for additional research in this area of inquiry. This is the first study known to the researchers to explicitly examine this topic.