Displaying 1 - 10 of 284
Background:
Parental difficulties, including mental ill health, substance misuse, domestic violence and learning disability have been associated with children entering out-of-home care. There is also evidence that these issues may co-occur within families. Understanding how the co-occurrence of these difficulties is associated with care entry is complex because they may co-occur in the same or different household members and have different impacts on the likelihood of care entry when they occur in mothers, fathers or in single parent households.
Method:
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Secure children's homes are locked institutions that deprive children of their liberty. The government are investing significantly in these homes, yet there remains a lack of clarity about their nature and purpose. Drawing on data generated through a substantial ethnography in one secure children's home in England, this paper uses Goffman's (1961) theorising as a conceptual lens to view the institution.
It concludes that ambiguity and confusion about what these institutions are, and what they seek to achieve, impacts negatively on the…
Abstract
Background
The mental health and well-being of care-experienced children and young people remains a concern. Despite a range of interventions, the existing evidence base is limited in scope, with a reliance on standalone outcome evaluations which limits understanding of how contextual factors influence implementation and acceptability. The care-experienced children and young people’s interventions to improve mental health and well-being outcomes systematic review (CHIMES) aimed to synthesise evidence of intervention theory, outcome, process and economic effectiveness. This…
Background:
Tens of millions of children lack adequate care, many having been separated from or lost one or both parents. Despite the problem’s severity and its impact on a child’s lifelong health and wellbeing, the care of vulnerable children—which includes strengthening the care of children within families, preventing unnecessary family separation, and ensuring quality care alternatives when reunification with the biological parents is not possible or appropriate—is a low global priority. This analysis investigates factors shaping the inadequate global prioritization of the care…
Examining the Implications of Early Adolescent Attachment on Out-of-Home Placement and Family Courts
Few scholars have examined early adolescent attachment in child welfare, where placement is a necessary but forced attachment disruption. The purpose of this nonexperimental quantitative study was to examine the responses of 18- to 24-year-olds (n = 83) who had been in out-of-home care, comparing early adolescent versus non-early adolescent placement, placement setting, and sibling accessibility on attachment. Results showed early adolescents were almost half as likely to be securely attached postplacement than other age ranges and the importance of family-like placements and maintaining peer…
Internationally, Quality of life (QOL) research among children and adolescents has seen a marked proliferation over the past decades. Despite conceptual and methodological progress in this field, there still is much to learn about the QOL of young people involved in child and youth welfare and protection services. The present study investigates how adolescents between 12 and 18 years old in residential and non-residential youth care services (N = 271) perceive their QOL on the basis of a new specific measure: the Quality of Life in Youth Services Scale (QOLYSS).
It further examined…
Abstract:
New research shows that children exposed to early psychosocial deprivation benefit substantially from family-based care. The results were presented by senior author Kathryn L. Humphreys, PhD, at the 2023 annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. Results of research from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, the first randomized controlled trial of foster care as an alternative to institutional (orphanage) care, showed that the positive effects of foster care last more than two decades.
Abstract:
Background
The mental health and wellbeing of care-experienced children and young people (i.e. foster care, kinship care, residential care) is poorer than non-care-experienced populations. The Care-experienced children and young people’s Interventions to improve Mental health and well-being outcomes Systematic review (CHIMES) aimed to synthesise the international evidence base for interventions targeting subjective wellbeing, mental health and suicide amongst care-experienced young people aged ≤ 25 years.
Methods
For the first phase of the review, the…
The first in the series of the 2023 ENIL-ECCL webinars focused on getting the message out about the importance of closing institutions. One of the key arguments for keeping institutions open is that “the society is not ready” for this change. In other words, that we cannot expect all disabled people to live independently in the community. This webinar looked at ways in which we can raise awareness among the general public on the right to independent living and the harm of institutionalisation for the entire society.
This article examines the intersections of orphanage trafficking, a form of child trafficking and modern slavery, and the sale and sexual exploitation of children with reference to the Sustainable Development Goals. It outlines the contextual challenges of these intersections highlighting the special protection needs of children residing in institutions and outlines how orphanage tourism and funding undermine care reform efforts of national authorities.
To address these issues, we make recommendations to address both the in-country and external causal factors that drive and enable…