Kinship Care | Better Care Network

Kinship Care

Kinship care is the full-time care of a child by a relative or another member of the extended family. This type of arrangement is the most common form of out of home care throughout the world and is typically arranged without formal legal proceedings. In many developing countries, it is essentially the only form of alternative family care available on a significant scale.

In the context of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, kinship care is the primary mechanism that has enabled a vast majority of children who have lost both parents to remain in family care in their community.

Kinship care offers many advantages over other forms of care for children not able to live with their parents. It allows family relationships to continue, maintains the child within her culture and community, and avoids the anxieties related to placements with unfamiliar adults.

Kinship care is more successful with immediate family members, rather than distant relatives. Children may be treated differently than the caretaker’s own children, and exploited, abused or denied access to education and health services. Kinship care has also been shown to result in the delayed reunification of a child and parents, either because the family is comfortable with the situation, there are financial disincentives for returning the child, or social services are less active in moving the case forward.

In order to reduce the incidence of such problems, the use of kinship care should be appropriately monitored by the local authority or a protection agency. Children in kinship care have a right to protection and family support services. However, it must be recognized that kinship care has a positive effect on many children's lives. Placing requirements on kinship arrangements that unnecessarily intefere with or interrupt this traditional caretaking practice should be avoided.

Kinship care may be an option for child protection agencies to consider when a child is without adequate family care. The decision to use kinship care will depend on what is in the child’s best interests, and should involve a careful assessment of the child’s opinions, the family’s ability to care for the child, and permanency planning in order to work towards timely family reunification. Financial support is an area for debate since, while it can enable a family to care for a child, it may also encourage relatives to keep a child for monetary gain.

The resources found in this section provide policy guidance and country examples on the use of kinship care.

Displaying 211 - 220 of 595

Browse Other Topics

High stress experienced in the foster and kin carer role: Understanding the complexities of the carer and child in context

Leith Harding, Kate Murray, Jane Shakespeare-Finch, Ron Frey - Children and Youth Services Review, 04 Nov 2018

The current study examined placement, carer, and child characteristics related to perceived foster parent stress in a sample of 158 foster and kin carers in Queensland, Australia.

View Article

Children of migration: Hopes and tensions over border-crossing in Moldova

Catherine Douillet - Journal of European Studies, 22 Oct 2018

According to some estimates, a third of the adult Moldovan population is working abroad, often ‘leaving behind’ children in the care of relatives, neighbours or in orphanages. This paper from the Journal of European Studies investigates how such high migration rates affect Moldovan family life and personal definitions of identity and success.

View Article

Convenient Yet Neglected: The Role of Grandparent Kinship Carers

Ines Zuchowski, Susan Gair, Debbie Henderson, Ros Thorpe - The British Journal of Social Work, 11 Oct 2018

The qualitative Australian study reported here explored how contact between grandparents and their grandchildren could be optimised after child-safety concerns.

View Article

The longitudinal associations among grandparent–grandchild cohesion, cultural beliefs about adversity, and depression in Chinese rural left-behind children

Qianyu Li, Wenxin Zhang, ingxin Zhao - Journal of Health Psychology, 04 Oct 2018

This study examined the effects of grandparent–grandchild cohesion on the cross-lagged associations between depression and cultural beliefs about adversity in a sample of 625 rural left-behind children in China.

View Article

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.

View Article

The Effectiveness of Interventions for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

Ko Ling Chan, Mengtong Chen, Kin Ming Camilla Lo, Qiqi Chen, Susan J. Kelley, Patrick Ip - Research on Social Work Practice, 11 Sep 2018

The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of intervention programs that aim to enhance the well-being of grandparent caregivers and the developmental outcomes of grandchildren and identify useful program components.

View Article

The Effectiveness of Interventions for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: A Meta-Analysis

Ko Ling Chan, Mengtong Chen, Kin Ming Camilla Lo, Qiqi Chen, Susan J. Kelley, Patrick Ip - Research on Social Work Practice, 11 Sep 2018

The research objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of intervention programs that aim to enhance the well-being of grandparent caregivers and the developmental outcomes of grandchildren and identify useful program components.

View Article

Raising the Children of the Opioid Epidemic: Solutions and Support for Grandfamilies

Generations United, 01 Sep 2018

This report from Generations United provides data on the opioid crisis in the US, and its impact on grandfamilies, and offers policy and program recommendations related to recently passed legislation - the Family First Prevention Services Act and the Supporting Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Act.

Family Structures, Family Relationship, and Children's Perceptions of Life Satisfaction

Hayles, Olivia; Xu, Lihua; Edwards, Oliver W. - School Psychology Forum, 01 Sep 2018

This study examines family structures and children's perceptions regarding family connectedness and perceived life satisfaction (LS) using a nationally representative U.S. sample of 926 students in grades 7–10.

View Article

Executive Summary: Promoting and Protecting the Rights of Children: A Formative Evaluation of UNICEF’S Child Protection Programme in Cambodia (Khmer Language)

UNICEF Cambodia, 01 Sep 2018

The objective of this evaluation was to provide evidence that can help strengthen performance and accountability with UNICEF’s work with the Royal Government of Cambodia and the myriad other authorities and organizations involved in child protection.