Displaying 1 - 10 of 46
Norwegian youth in out-of-home care move three times as frequently as their peers. Such placement instability is linked to negative outcomes in terms of social attachment, well-being, educational achievements, health, and future opportunities. Norway implemented a new child welfare service reform in 2022 that increased the municipalities responsibilities for out-of-home care. The “incentive package” and “Barneløftet” were measures implemented to prepare the municipalities for these changes.
This study evaluates how the implemented measures affect the number of moves within out-of-home care…
This article explores how the monitoring of foster homes in Norway is experienced by children and youths who have been exposed to what they consider abusive behaviour by foster parents. Using a thematic narrative theoretical framework, the article shows that a common narrative in the youths’ accounts is a story of mistrust towards social workers and monitoring officers, which relates to a general mistrust towards the child welfare service.
The young individuals are reluctant to tell monitoring officers about how they truly experience their situation in their foster home. At the same time,…
This article aims to build knowledge, from a life-course perspective, of foster carers’ views of the transition from care to adulthood for young people with mental health problems by interviewing carers from foster homes in Norway and Sweden. The following research questions were addressed: How do mental health problems affect the care-leaving process and the linked lives between young people and foster carers? What impacts do young people’s mental health problems have on the timing of lives and social age when they leave a placement in care? The authors…
This is chapter 10 in the book "Child Welfare and the Value of Family Privacy".
Abstract:
Privacy is a central characteristic of the family, and while there are reasons to value family privacy, it is also regarded as an obstacle to justice in the family ethics literature. Because family life is protected from intervention by external agencies, parents’ resources and caregiving practices may have a profound impact on the child’s rights and opportunities. Given these considerations, the family may be an obstacle to equality of opportunity and the protection of children’s rights.…
This chapter in the book "Child Welfare and the Value of Family Privacy" addresses aims and challenges in the processes of including children and youth in foster families and suggests a solution inspired by anthropological literature. The author argues that the ‘best interests of the child’ are closely tied to staying in a stable foster home, which emerged in interviews with children in the Norwegian Child Welfare Services (CWS) and foster parents.
The author introduces anthropological approaches to kinship to discuss how successful foster care may be challenged by the cultural…
Abstract:
Under national and international legislation, when choosing a foster home, continuity of upbringing and connection to the child’s cultural, religious, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds is desirable. However, research shows that such considerations are only taken into account to a small extent and that children from minority backgrounds are often settled in majority foster homes. The Norwegian Child Welfare Service has been criticised for this.
In this article, the focus is on youth with minority backgrounds living in majority foster homes and their views on cultural…
Abstract
Siblings are key actors in the social network of young people in care. This paper explores young people's perceptions of changes in the quality of sibling relationships and the pathways relationships follow during the transition from the biological family into care. A thematic analysis of interviews with young Norwegian people (n = 25) in care showed that, in the biological family, sibling relationships are characterized by alliances, parentification, conflicts or nonexistence. After admission to child welfare services care, sibling relationships developed along multiple…
Abstract
Youth within the child welfare system (CWS) have often experienced adverse life events, and many need support from health services. This study aimed to compare mental health problems and health service use among adolescents receiving in-home services (IHS), living in foster care (FC) and general population youth (GP). Data stem from the youth@hordaland survey, a population-based study of adolescents (N = 10,257, age 16–19) conducted in 2012 in Hordaland County, Norway. The adolescents provided self-reported data on CWS contact, health service use, adverse life events and…
Abstract
This article studies how three groups of professional decision-makers – child welfare workers, experts on children and judges – exercise discretion in decisions on adoption from care in the Norwegian child welfare system. The analysis is based on near 500 decision-makers’ responses to a vignette about David, a four-year-old boy whose foster parents want to adopt him. After reading the vignette, decision-makers were asked to choose a measure for David: adoption or continued foster care. They were thereupon asked (1) which specific features of the case were decisive to their…
Abstract
Background and aims
The literature base on substance use among adolescents who receive interventions from child welfare services (CWS) in Nordic countries is limited. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether Norwegian adolescents in contact with CWS are at higher risk for substance-related problems (SRP) compared with the general adolescent population, and to what extent those in foster care (FC) differ from those receiving in-home services (IHS).
Methods
The data set comprise 9785 individuals aged 16–19 years who participated in the cross-sectional,…