What makes kinship caregivers unprepared for children in their care? Perspectives and experiences from kinship care alumni in Ghana

Ebenezer Cudjoe, Alhassan Abdullah, Marcus Y. L. Chiu - Children and Youth Services Review

This study reports on a qualitative investigation involving 15 young kinship care alumni in Ghana to explore what kinship caregivers' unpreparedness means and what causes them to be unprepared.

The Buffering Role of Social Support on the Psychosocial Wellbeing of Orphans in Rwanda

Tehetna Alemu Caserta, Raija‐Leena Punamäki, & Anna‐Maija Pirttilä‐Backman -

This study examined (1) how perceived social support (PSS) varied across orphan‐related characteristics (e.g., orphan status, such as single, maternal or paternal, and their living environments, such as in child‐headed households, on the street, in an orphanage or in a foster home) and (2) the relative importance of sources of PSS (relatives/community/adults and peers) and functional social support (emotional/informational/instrumental and social) and its association with emotional well‐being and mental distress.

Increasing Social Support for Child Welfare-Involved Families Through Family Group Conferencing

Tyler W Corwin, Erin J Maher, Lisa Merkel-Holguin, Heather Allan, Dana M Hollinshead, John D Fluke - The British Journal of Social Work

This study uses a randomised controlled trial to examine the impact of Family Group Conferencing on caseworkers’ perceptions of families’ levels of social support.

Social Workers’ Reflections on Ethics in Relation to Adoption in the UK: Everywhere but Nowhere?

Brid Featherstone & Anna Gupta - The British Journal of Social Work

Empirical research with social workers exploring their understandings and use of codes or ethical theories in practice remain underdeveloped in the UK. This article, based on the British Association of Social Work commissioned Enquiry into the role of the social worker in adoption with a focus on ethics and human rights, provides an important contribution in this context.