When care hurts: Institutional betrayal trauma among former foster youth

Karen Zilberstein, Deanna Linville and Saralyn Ruff

Children and Youth Services Review, 2025, vol. 179, issue C

Abstract: Institutional betrayals involve harmful or negligent actions by institutions that breach the trust of those who depend on them. Their occurrences and traumatic effects have been studied in only a few settings, and the contextual factors that enable them are not yet well understood. This study sought to capture former foster youths’ perspectives on how the child welfare system perpetuates institutional betrayals, their impacts, and contributing factors. Thirteen former foster youth participated in semi-structured interviews and focus groups over Zoom, discussing their experiences with the foster care and mental health systems. Descriptive phenomenology was used to analyze the transcribed interviews, revealing seven forms of institutional betrayal: repeated losses, traumatic removals, disempowerment, pathologization, discrimination, abuse, and poor service provision. These experiences led to adverse outcomes such as mental health issues, difficulty trusting others, poor self-perception, and stigmatization. Participants cited fragmented systems and low access to quality resources as contributing factors.

Keywords: Institutional betrayal; Trauma; Foster care; Child welfare; Mental health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:179:y:2025:i:c:s0190740925005043

DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2025.108621

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