Document Type

Capstone

Abstract

There is a large demographic of American children that are in foster care or have been adopted. These children experience occurrences of adversity than children living with their biological families, including issues such as high conflict, housing instability, family isolation, abuse and neglect, and inadequate attachments with caregivers. The trauma from these factors affects the child's emotional regulation skills, leading to deficits in their social, emotional, mental, and physical well-being. Caregivers of children with emotional regulation dysfunction often feel ill-equipped to handle their child's behaviors and emotional disturbances. Caregivers often report a poor mental state, affecting time management skills, daily routines, and occupational performance. Providing foster and adopted children with emotional regulation coping strategies can help mitigate the effects of emotional dysregulation, promoting increased occupational participation and success in academic, play, leisure, and self-care occupations. The purpose of this capstone project is to emphasize the importance of the role of caregiver education in developing emotional regulation skills in foster and adopted children. By providing education on emotional regulation and coping strategies, caregivers are empowered to implement techniques to promote emotional regulation into their everyday routines. Throughout this project, an educational presentation defining emotional regulation, describing signs of dysregulation, and providing emotional regulation coping strategies was provided to caregivers of foster and adopted children. The outcome of this education indicated that once caregivers gained knowledge on emotional regulation and coping strategies, they were better equipped to recognize and address dysregulation and implement coping strategies when needed. This implies that providing caregiver education on emotional regulation to caregivers of foster and adopted children is an effective way to improve the emotional regulation skills of this population and to increase carryover outside of occupational therapy intervention.

Publication Date

4-17-2023

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