Foster Care

The term “foster care” is used in a variety of ways, and, consequently, it often causes confusion and miscommunication. In the industrialized world it is generally used to refer to formal, temporary placements made by the State with families that are trained, monitored and compensated at some level. In many developing countries, however, fostering is kinship care or other placement with a family, the objective(s) of which may include the care of the child, the child’s access to education, and/or the child’s doing some type of work for the foster family.

Displaying 1 - 10 of 2173

Marian J. Bakermans-Kranenburg, Marinus H. van IJzendoorn,

This article reviews a study conducted about child development in residential care, foster/kafalah care, and adoptive families. The authors of the study demonstrated that institutions cannot provide safe, stable, and shared care for children, and lead to substantial delays in their development, not only for physical health but also for mental health and neurocognitive growth.

Hanna Kędzierska, Sylwester Zagulski,

The aim of this empirical study was to analyse the relevance of long-term care solutions implemented in Poland for children leaving foster care, from the perspective of professional caregivers of the process of becoming independent.

Dylan Jones, Rebecca Orsi-Hunt, Hyunil Kim, Melissa Jonson-Reid, Brett Drake,

This article details the authors' findings that provide the first description of foster care trajectories in the US. Both practice and policy formulation can benefit from these empirically supported descriptions. Using such trajectory typologies, researchers can now explore how trajectories may predict wellbeing outcomes.

Michael W. Naylor, James Chambliss, Ravneet Singh, Robin Du,

This article details to unique challenges faced by youth in care in the US when receiving inpatient treatment and how that varies in several ways from the care of non-foster care youth. Children in care have more medical, behavioral, and psychiatric problems and require health care at higher rates than youth not engaged in the child welfare system.

Mpho Mosala, Lizane Wilson,

This is a qualitative research study to gather primary data to examine the high demand for foster care services in South Africa and the impact on the country's social work services.

Yanbin Niu, George A. Buzzell, Ana Cosmoiu, Nathan A. Fox, Charles A. Nelson, Charles H. Zeanah, Kathryn L. Humphreys,

The current study examined irritability in 107 16-year-olds with a history of institutional care from a randomized controlled trial of foster care as an alternative to institutional care and 49 community comparison children.

Markus N. Sauerwein, Gunther Graßhoff,

This article addresses two issues: whether the inequalities faced by cared for children will persist in different stages of their lives and whether these inequalities are dependent on the specific out-of-home care setting, i.e. residential or foster care. The authors examine data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), covering a 50-year period.

Carl F. Weems, Janet N. Melby, Carol Behrer, Doug Wolfe, Mikaela D. Scozzafava ,

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.

Sunggeun (Ethan) Park, Melanie Nadon, Nathanael J. Okpych, Justin S. Harty, Mark Courtney,

Using representative survey data of youth transitioning out of foster care in California, the authors of this study examine the prevalence and predictors of food insecurity. They found that about 30% of study participants were food insecure at ages 19, 21, and 23.

The survey results presented in this report highlight increasing efforts by states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico to promote kinship care and support the caregivers of children who are known to the child welfare system. At the same time, the report calls on states to do more to help willing kin caregivers access and benefit from foster care licensing.