Foster Care | Better Care Network

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.

Such care is informal and unregulated by the State. Foster care can also be understood as formal care, typically provided by adults who are not related to the child, but may include formalized kinship care. It is usually for a limited period until the child can return home or move into a more permanent placement such as adoption.

In emergency situations, such as armed conflict, informal fostering often occurs spontaneously when a family takes in an unaccompanied child. Also, in some emergency situations, agencies have organized a quasi-formal type of foster care to ensure immediate, family-based care for unaccompanied children. Such foster care should be formally arranged by the local authority or child protection organisation and include assessing each child’s best interests; screening, training, and monitoring of caretakers; and planning for the longer term needs of each child.

Foster care can provide the advantages of family-based care within a child’s own community. In some situations, particularly spontaneous care initiated during an emergency, it can become de facto adoption in settings where State child protection services and formalization of care arrangements are very limited or do not exist.

Foster care plays an important role in a situation where a child’s own family is not providing adequately for his or her care. It can provide protection and care for the child while the family situation is improved, with the eventual aim of family reunification.

It is vital that children are provided opportunities to express their wishes and concerns regarding with whom they live and have contact. The appointment of a legal guardian is a means of ensuring their opinions are taken into account.

Foster caretakers often receive support to meet the child’s needs and prevent placement breakdown. This may include parenting guidance and access to basic services for the child. Payment for care requires thoughtful consideration and should not encourage the separation of children from their families, or the use of a child for financial gain. All placements should be regulated to ensure the standards of care protect the child and encourage her development.

This body of literature provides examples from around the world of spontaneous, informal and formal fostering. It includes guidance on standards of care and child care policy.

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Handbook for Children in Foster Care: Away From Home, and All Alone - Helping Displaced Children Understand Foster Care

SUKA Society, UNHCR Malaysia, 01 Oct 2018

This is a child-friendly summary of a handbook developed specifically to create a Foster Care Programme for unaccompanied and separated children (UASC) within the Rohingya community in Malaysia.

Ghana Department of Social Welfare Foster Care Operational Manual

UNICEF Ghana, Department of Social Welfare of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, 01 Oct 2018

The purpose of this Foster Care Operational Manual is to provide guidance to Department of Social Welfare (DSW) officers and Foster Care Agencies on the delivery of foster care services in line with the Children’s Amendment Act, 2016 and Foster Care Regulations 2018.

Psychometric Properties of the Compass of Shame Scale: Testing for Measurement Invariance Across Community Boys and Boys in Foster Care and Juvenile Detentions Facilities

Paula Vagos, Diana Ribeiro da Silva, Nélio Brazão, Daniel Rijo, Jeff Elison - Child & Youth Care Forum, 29 Sep 2018

This study evaluated the psychometric properties of a Portuguese version of the Compass of Shame Scale using an adolescent sample, to investigate if its internal structure was valid for diverse adolescent subsamples, and to gather evidence on the construct validity of the instrument.

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Reunification in foster care: Influences on decision-making

João M.S.Carvalho, Paulo Delgado, Vânia S. Pinto, Rami Benbenishty - Child Abuse & Neglect, 28 Sep 2018

An important goal of out of home care is to prepare the family and child for reunification. Practitioners are often required to make the decision whether to reunify a foster child with their biological family. This study examines this complex reunification decision in Portugal.

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Measurement Based Care in Child Welfare-Involved Children and Youth: Reliability and Validity of the PSC-17

Jedediah H. Jacobson, Michael D. Pullmann, Elizabeth M. Parker, Suzanne E. U. Kerns - Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 27 Sep 2018

This study evaluates whether the psychometric properties of the Pediatric Symptoms Checklist-17 (PSC-17), a common behavioral health measure typically used as a dichotomous screening tool for mental health needs, support its use as a continuous measure for tracking behavioral health over time.

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The Impact of Kinship Networks on Foster Care Children's Outcomes

Scott C. Leon & Daniel A. Dickson - Family Relations, 27 Sep 2018

The objective of this study was to identify different kin and fictive kin network support profiles available to children in foster care and examine whether these profiles predict behavioral outcomes.

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Effect of Foster Care Intervention on Trajectories of General and Specific Psychopathology Among Children With Histories of Institutional Rearing

Mark Wade, Nathan A. Fox, Charles H. Zeanah, Charles A. Nelson - JAMA Psychiatry, 26 Sep 2018

The aim of this study was to examine trajectories of latent psychopathology factors—general (P), internalizing (INT), and externalizing (EXT)—among children reared in institutions and to evaluate whether randomization to foster care is associated with reductions in psychopathology from middle childhood through adolescence.

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Use of Hierarchical Measures of Psychopathology to Capture the Long (and Wide) Shadow of Early Deprivation in the Bucharest Early Intervention Project Analysis

Jonathan D. Schaefer - JAMA Psychiatry, 26 Sep 2018

It has long been recognized that early adversity represents a strong risk factor for the development of later psychopathology.

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Resiliency and Adolescent Motherhood in the Context of Residential Foster Care

Autumn M. Bermea, Brad Forenza, Heidi Adams Rueda, Michelle L. Toews - Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 26 Sep 2018

The purpose of the current study was to explore how adolescent mothers experienced pregnancy and parenthood within the context of residential foster care.

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Utilising genetically-informed research designs to better understand family processes and child development: implications for adoption and foster-care focused interventions

Sellers, Ruth, Smith, A F, Leve, L D, Nixon, E, Cane, T, Cassell, J A and Harold, G T - Adoption and Fostering, 25 Sep 2018

This paper summarises how genetically-informed research designs can help disentangle genetic from environmental processes underlying psychopathology outcomes for children, and how this evidence can provide improved insights into the development of more effective preventative intervention targets for adoption and foster-care families.

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