The enormous cost of toxic stress: Repairing damage to refugee and separated children

Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, cientific Advisory Group, Early Childhood of the Bezos Family Foundation

This statement, submitted on behalf of the Scientific Advisory Group, Early Childhood of the Bezos Family Foundation, has been released in light of the policy of family separation of immigrant families at the U.S. border with Mexico and outlines the harmful impacts of the toxic stress of family separation on children's brain development and physical wellbeing.

Shaping Cash Transfer Impacts Through ‘Soft-Conditions’: Evidence from Lesotho

Noemi Pace, Silvio Daidone, Benjamin Davis, Luca Pellerano - Journal of African Economies

This paper focuses on the role of ‘soft conditionality’ implemented through both ‘labelling’ and ‘messaging’ in evaluating the impact of the Child Grants Program in Lesotho, an unconditional cash transfer programme targeting poor households with orphans and vulnerable children.

‘I Stand on My Own Two Feet but Need Someone Who Really Cares’: Social Networks and Social Capital among Unaccompanied Minors for Becoming Established in Swedish Society

Malin Eriksson, Malin E Wimelius, Mehdi Ghazinour - Journal of Refugee Studies

The aim of this qualitative grounded-theory situational study was to explore experiences of social networks among unaccompanied minors (UM) and the significance of those networks for becoming established in Sweden, based on data from in-depth interviews with 11 young persons.

Reasons for placement decisions in a case of suspected child abuse: the role of reasoning, work experience and attitudes in decision-making

Cora Bartelink, Erik J. Knorth, Mónica López López, Carien Koopmans, Ingrid J. Ten Berge, Cilia L.M. Witteman, Tom A. Van Yperen - Child Abuse & Neglect

This study focuses on workers’ rationales in placement decisions in child abuse cases in the Netherlands.

Community perceptions of home environments that lead children & youth to the street in semi-rural Kenya

Sarah Seidel, James Muciimi, James Chang, Stanley Gitari, Philip Keiser, Michael L. Goodman - Child Abuse & Neglect

For this study, forty men and women from five semi-rural villages in Meru County, Kenya participated in a Rapid Rural Appraisal to explore main and underlying reasons why children may be, or may feel, unwelcome in the home and thus migrate to the street.

Sibling Relationships in Adoptive Families That Disrupted or Were in Crisis

Julie Selwyn - Research on Social Work Practice

The study from the Special Issue on Adoption Breakdown of the journal of Research on Social Work Practice investigated whether sibling relationships influenced the outcomes of a sample of adoptive placements in England and Wales that had broken down postorder or were in crisis.

Commentary: Understanding Research, Policy, and Practice Issues in Adoption Instability

David Brodzinsky, Susan Livingston Smith - Research on Social Work Practice

This commentary from the Special Issue on Adoption Breakdown of the journal of Research on Social Work Practice highlights the authors’ conceptual and empirical contributions for understanding the incidence and dynamics of varying types of adoption breakdowns and their impact on adopted youth and their families.

Beyond the Child’s Age at Placement: Risk and Protective Factors in Preadoption Breakdown in Portugal

Maria Barbosa-Ducharne, Sylvie Marinho - Research on Social Work Practice

The main goals of this study from the Special Issue on Adoption Breakdown of the journal of Research on Social Work Practice were to determine the incidence of preadoption breakdown in Portugal, describe preadoptive parents’ reasons for ending placement, compare intact/disrupted placements, and identify adoption disruption risk and protective factors.

Children’s relationships with birth parents in childhood and adulthood: A qualitative longitudinal study of kinship care

Jeanette Skoglund, Renee Thørnblad, Amy Holtan - Qualitative Social Work

The topic of interest in this paper is the relationship between children who live in kinship care and their birth parents – through childhood and adulthood.