This paper explores the benefits, challenges and dilemmas involved in the job of professional (i.e. state-supported) foster carer in Romania–a country where the issue of child protection has drawn a great deal of international attention over the last thirty years.

In this article, institutions in Russia, China, Ghana, and Chile are described with reference to the circumstances that lead to children’s institutionalization, resident children’s social-emotional relationships, and unique characteristics of each country’s institutional care (e.g., volunteer tourism in Ghana, and shifting demographics of institutionalized children in China).

This paper examines the data of empirical research on child-parent relationship in the Russian adoptive and birth families.

This paper examines associations between internalizing and externalizing psychopathology and inflammation in adolescents with a history of severe psychosocial deprivation and children reared in typical family contexts. The paper presents findings from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, a longitudinal randomized trial of high-quality foster care as an alternative to institutional care.

This small pilot project was conducted to start to understand and compare the situation of grandmothers caring for children in a diverse range of countries when their parents are in prison.

Pese a que hay un consenso sobre la importancia del cuidado efectivo en las familias para los niños, existe una falta de discusión y acuerdo sobre los componentes precisos de este cuidado. Este informe contribuye a debatir sobre este importante tema al proporcionar perspectivas de los grupos focales con 198 niños y 81 adultos de Brasil, Colombia, Egipto, México, Rusia, Ruanda y Zimbabue.

There is extensive research demonstrating clearly the importance of a safe and caring family for child wellbeing and development. While there is consensus on the importance of effective care in families for children, there is a lack of discussion and agreement about the precise components of this care. This report contributes to debates on the components of family care by providing perspectives from nearly 200 children and over 80 adults from Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Mexico, Russia, Rwanda and Zimbabwe. The report demonstrates that there are many commonalities in perspectives on and experiences of care across contexts.

In this article, the authors present findings from a follow‐up assessment from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP) - the first longitudinal study to investigate the neurodevelopment of institutionalized infants randomized to a foster care (FCG) intervention versus care as usual (CAUG)- of brain electrical activity as indexed by resting EEG at age 16 years.

In a sample of 136 Romanian children from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP), who were exposed to early psychosocial deprivation in the form of institutional care, the authors of this study examined caregiver-reported and observer-rated signs of disinhibited social engagement disorder (DSED).

This presentation, given at Disability Rights International and the European Network on Independent Living's webinar on the right of all children to a family, outlines the Consensus Statement Position on Group Care for Children and Adolescents of the American Orthopsychiatric Association and reviews the research on the detrimental effects of institutionalization on children from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project and other studies.