Kinship Care for the Safety, Permanency, and Well‐being of Children Removed from the Home for Maltreatment

Abstract

Child abuse and neglect are common problems across the world that result in\rnegative consequences for children, families and communities. Children who have\rbeen abused or neglected are often removed from the home and placed in residential\rcare or with other families, including foster families. Foster care was traditionally\rprovided by people that social workers recruited from the community specifically to\rprovide care for children whose parents could not look after them. Typically they\rwere not related to the children placed with them, and did not know them before the\rplacement was arranged. In recent years many societies have introduced policies\rthat favour placing children who cannot live at home with other members of their\rfamily or with friends of the family. This is known as 'kinship care' or 'families and\rfriends care'. We do not know what type of out-of-home care (placement) is\rbest for children.\rThis review was designed to help find out if research studies could tell us which kind\rof placement is best. Sixty two studies met the methodological standards we\rconsidered acceptable. Wherever possible we combined the data from studies\rlooking at the same outcome for children, in order to be more confident about what\rthe research was telling us. Current best evidence suggests that children in kinship\rcare may do better than children in traditional foster care in terms of their\rbehavioral development, mental health functioning, and placement stability.\rChildren in traditional foster care placements may do better with regard to achieving\rsome permanency outcomes and accessing services they may need. Implications for\rpractice and future research are discussed.