Displaying 1 - 10 of 1134
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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Research shows that youth who leave foster care to live independently are often at risk of homelessness, less education, unemployment/poverty, and mental health issues. There are a number of reasons for this increased risk. A variety of aftercare services for youth leaving foster care are designed to help address these risks.
The purpose of this study was to examine trends in participation and understand the experiences of youth transitioning from foster care who were involved in the Iowa Aftercare Services Program. The authors examine trends in participation, services received,…
Abstract:
Background:
There is growing awareness that a proportion of children in orphanages have been recruited or transferred into the facility for a purpose of exploitation and/or profit. These children are often falsely presented as orphans to evoke sympathy and solicit funding. This process is known as orphanage trafficking. Although orphanage trafficking can be prosecuted under legal frameworks in some jurisdictions, including Cambodia, there have been limited prosecutions to date. One factor that likely contributes to a lack of prosecution is poor detection, yet the indicators of…
This book sets out the case for Transitional Safeguarding, a new approach to protection and safeguarding designed to address the needs and behaviours of young people aged 15-24 who are falling between gaps in current global systems, with often devastating results.
While the book addressed the gaps in the current system in the UK, the lessons have global application and the authors outlines how the specific needs of young people can be met through this approach. Written by leading experts in this area with strong practice networks, it presents up-to-date evidence for its effectiveness, and…
Young adults with histories of out-of-home care (OOHC) have poor early adult outcomes. Transitioning to adulthood takes preparation, coupled with support and resources. Few studies have examined these young adults’ perceptions of what helped them prepare for adulthood and how prepared they perceived they were to make the developmental transition to adulthood. This convergent mixed methods study builds knowledge surrounding preparedness among a sample of young adults with histories in OOHC (N = 204).
The study progressed in three phases. First, quantitative measures of preparedness…
Leaving a familiar environment can be daunting. Although previous studies investigated the experiences of youths who left care centres, few considered those who left during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this exploratory qualitative research study, the authors purposively recruited 12 African youths aged between 18 and 23, with at least two years’ experience of life in the care centres of Ekurhuleni Metro Municipality to investigate their experiences when they left such centres during the pandemic.
The data were collected through individual semistructured interviews, analysed according to…
Transition-age youth with foster care involvement (TAY) face significant risks for food insecurity and other hardships in early adulthood. Using representative survey data of youth transitioning out of foster care in California, the authors examine the prevalence and predictors of food insecurity. They find that about 30% of study participants were food insecure at ages 19, 21, and 23.
They also identify multiple risk and protective factors associated with being food insecure, such as TAY’s sexual identity and receipt of public benefits. The results of their study offer life-stage-specific…
There is a lack of research investigating the role of caregivers in the development and prevention of mental health issues and substance use among youth living in care. The goal of this study is to examine the relationship between caregiver characteristics, caregiver attachment and placement type on two dimensions of mental health and substance use among a sample of older youth living in care.
The data used for this study were collected as part of the Ontario Looking After Children project, which was developed to assess the needs and developmental progress of children and young people who…
The purpose of this U.S.-based study was to examine two intervening variables, self-care and formal support that affect the relationship between children with behavioural issues and caregiver depression. Specifically, this study examines whether self-care can mediate the relationship between children's behavioural issues and caregivers' depression levels and whether formal support can moderate the relationship between children's behavioural issues and caregivers' depression levels. Data from this study were collected from Qualtrics survey in 2020. A total of 136 participated in the survey,…
Around the world, millions of children are growing up in orphanages, or children's homes as they are called in many places. But research has shown that the vast majority of them, actually have families. Still many Americans are giving their money to these institutions, which researchers say are bad for children. In countries like Uganda, those well-intentioned funds have created a whole industry around orphans. For the past year, The World's Africa correspondent Halima Gikandi has looked into Western-sponsored orphanages in Uganda, and seen what can go wrong. This is part one of her…