Displaying 1 - 10 of 14
Abstract
The academic achievement places children on a positive trajectory for their lifespan. The aim of this study was to examine the academic trajectories of children in out-of-home care (OOCH) and whether kinship care has a protective effect relative to nonkin foster care. The sample analyzed for this study consists of 519,306 racially diverse youth in North Carolina schools 8 to 11 years old in the school year 2009–2010 (e.g., 27% African American, 12% Latinx, 53% White). Four longitudinal administrative data sources were merged to create this unique sample. Multilevel modeling…
Abstract
Objective:
Millions of children cared for by their grandparents or other kin without a biological parent present are not part of the foster care system. Maltreatment may have precipitated out-of-home care arrangements, but most children in informal kinship care are not being tracked or receiving services. Importantly, the extent of previous child welfare involvement and its association with well-being among this population are not well known.
Methods:
Kinship caregivers known to social service and community agencies were recruited for this…
Abstract
Informal caregivers (family, friends, and neighbors) spend many hours each week with the children in their care and can have a significant impact on the children’s social-emotional and academic development. Unfortunately, many informal caregivers lack the knowledge of how to do so. We conducted a qualitative 2-year study to investigate informal caregivers’ motivations, assets, and needs. The caregivers received text messages to help them support child development. In Year 1, we used interviews to better understand the needs of informal caregivers and potential opportunities to…
Abstract
This study from the Special Issue on Kinship Care of the Child Welfare Journal examines the characteristics of children and their caregivers, the extent of children’s prior involvement in the child welfare system and the factors associated with placement instability in informal kinship care. A survey of kinship caregivers and child welfare administrative records were used to answer these questions. The study sample includes 321 children who were living with caregivers at the time of the initial survey. Caregivers had…
This study from the Special Issue on Kinship Care of the Child Welfare Journal examined if kinship navigation services can improve family needs, caregiver self-efficacy and placement stability of children in the care of their grandparents or other relatives. A total of 63 caregivers and 134 children received navigation services during a period that ranged from 2 to 23 months and participated in both baseline and follow-up data collection. The study design utilized a single-group pre-test/post-test, using standardized assessment…
Abstract: This paper from the Special Issue on Kinship Care of the Child Welfare Journal discusses a three-phased service model assessed using Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) conferences with informal kinship caregivers and their families. Gain scores were compared between Phase 2 (case management only) and Phase 3 families (case management with conference). Phase 3 families had higher gain scores than the Phase 2 families on measures of parenting stress, social support, family needs and child well-being…
Abstract
Collaborative partnerships are a major factor in achieving positive outcomes for children, youth, and families. They can lead to a common and unified understanding of the needs of children, youth, and families; identification of gaps in services and supports; and coordinated efforts to address those gaps across child welfare and other human and social services. While it is recognized that progress has been made in developing policy and defining standards of practice related to supporting kinship families, there remains a need for continuous assessment of current policy and…
The purpose of this introduction of the Special Issue on Kinship Care of the Child Welfare Journal is to offer a conceptual framework for addressing the challenges involved in developing a coherent set of policies and practices with respect to kinship care. The challenges span two key tensions in the public protection and care of vulnerable children. The first concerns the appropriate scope of public interest in the welfare of other people's children: Should child welfare policy be constrained to a narrow set of functions that ensure children are adequately fed,…
Twenty years ago, when this journal first published a special issue on kinship care (Wilson & Chipungu, 1996), the focus was on the formal placement of children with kin after the children were taken into public custody. This special issue of the Child Welfare Journal focuses on the much larger number of kinship caregivers, who either intervene on their own or accept the assistance of child protective authorities that facilitate informal arrangements without taking legal custody. It is the larger combined population of formal and informal kinship placements, to…
Abstract Many children are cared for on a full-time basis by relatives or adult friends, rather than their biological parents, and often in response to family crises. These kinship care arrangements have received increasing attention from the social science academy and social care professions. However, more information is needed on informal kinship care that is undertaken without official ratification by welfare agencies and often unsupported by the state. This article presents a comprehensive, narrative review of international, research literature on informal, kinship care to address this…