The association of a paraprofessional home visiting intervention with lower child maltreatment rates in First Nation families in Canada: A population-based retrospective cohort study

Mariette Chartier, et al - Children and Youth Services Review

This article investigates the efficacy of the Families First Home Visiting (FFHV) program, which aims to enhance parenting skills and strengthen relationships between parents and their children.

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Educational outcomes of children from long-term foster care: Does foster parents’ educational attainment matter?

Marie Berlin, Bo Vinnerljung, Anders Hjern, Lars Brännström - Developmental Child Welfare

Using Swedish longitudinal register data on 2.167 children with experience of long-term foster care, this study explores the hypothesized mediating role of foster parents’ educational attainment on foster children’s educational outcomes, here conceptualized as having poor school performance at age 15 and only primary education at age 26.

Social justice implications for educational psychologists working with orphans and vulnerable children in South Africa

Jace Pillay - School Psychology International

The aim of this article is to discuss the social justice implications for educational psychologists working with orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) who comprise 3.7 million of the population in South Africa.

Adverse childhood experiences among foster parents: Prevalence and association with resilience, coping, satisfaction as a foster parent, and intent to continue fostering

Morgan E. Cooley, Bethany Womack, Jacqueline Rush, Kristie Slinskey - Children and Youth Services Review

The purpose of this study was to examine the occurrence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) among a convenience sample of foster parents and explore multiple relationships between foster parent-reported ACEs, resilience, and other indicators of foster parent function and well-being (parental stress, satisfaction as a foster parent, perceived challenges with fostering, intent to continue fostering).

The development of DDP-informed parenting groups for parents and carers of children looked after or adopted from care

Kim S Golding - Adoption & Fostering

This article describes the development of two parenting groups – Nurturing Attachments and Foundations for Attachment, devised to provide much needed support for foster, residential and kinship carers and adopters parenting children and young people of all ages. Both programmes are informed by the Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) model.

Promising practices - strengthening families and systems to prevent and reduce the institutional care of children

Karen Flanagan - Modern Day Slavery and Orphanage Tourism

This chapter from the book Modern Day Slavery and Orphanage Tourism highlights promising practice which aims to prevent and reduce the institutionalization of children at two levels: (1) systems and social work strengthening, and (2) family strengthening and gatekeeping.

Children in Care: Exploitation, Offending and the Denial of Victimhood in a Prosecution-led Culture of Practice

Julie Shaw, Sarah Greenhow - The British Journal of Social Work

The following article reports upon recent research that explored the perceptions of professionals of the issues that affect the sexual and criminal exploitation of children in care, along with a discussion of the effectiveness of current responses to these issues and the challenges that professionals face.

An Integrated Model of Family Strengths and Resilience: Theorizing at the Intersection of Indigenous and Western Paradigms

Ricardo O. Sánchez, Bethany L. Letiecq, Mark R. Ginsberg - Journal of Family Theory and Review

This article theorizes a new conceptual framework of family strengths and resilience emerging at the intersection of indigenous and Western approaches to family systems.

Reaching unconnected caregivers: Using a text-message education program to better understand how to support informal caregivers role in child development

Sherri C Widen, Marlene Orozco, Eileen Lai Horng, Susanna Loeb - Journal of Early Childhood Research

The authors of this study conducted a qualitative 2-year study to investigate informal caregivers’ motivations, assets, and needs.

Poverty and the State of Orphans in Owerri, Imo State

Robert C. Odoemene, Orizu Ideobodo Nwafor & James Anekwe - African Journal of Social and Behavioural Sciences (AJSBS)

This study investigates and assesses the experiences of orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) who live with poverty, insecurity and social stigmatization in Owerri due largely to reasons of loss of parent(s) or being born by parents who are not there to take responsibilities for them. The purpose of the study is to inform and reform social policy by providing a better understanding of the suffering of orphans in our society.

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Mental health screening for children in care using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Brief Assessment Checklists: Guidance from three national studies

Michael Tarren-Sweeney, Anouk Goemans, Anna Sophie Hahne, and Matthew Gieve - Developmental Child Welfare

The present article proposes a first-stage mental health screening procedure (calibrated for high sensitivity) for children and adolescents (ages 4–17) in alternative care, which children’s agencies can implement without clinical oversight using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and Brief Assessment Checklists (BAC).

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Family Inclusive practice in child welfare: report of a Churchill Fellowship study tour

Jessica Cocks - Children Australia

Drawing on the findings of a Churchill Fellowship study tour, this article discusses the need to expand understanding of family engagement and, in particular, to implement Family Inclusive practice in Australian child welfare, both to increase reunification and to improve outcomes for children who do not return home.

Transition to adulthood for youth with disabilities who experienced foster care: An ecological approach

Robin Marie Harwick, Deanne Unruh, Lauren Lindstrom - Child Abuse & Neglect

The purpose of the study was to uncover challenges during the transition to adulthood for youth with disabilities who experienced foster care and elucidate the supports most beneficial in addressing these challenges.

Country Care Review: Mozambique

Better Care Network

This Country Care Review includes the care-related concluding observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, as well as other care-related concluding observations, ratification dates, and links to the Universal Periodic Review and Hague Intercountry Adoption Country Profile.

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30 Days to Family Study: Achieving Results for Children, Families, and Child Welfare

Foster & Adoptive Care Coalition

This brief from the Foster & Adoptive Care Coalition in the United States provides an overview of the 30 Days to Family® program in the U.S. state of Missouri, an intense, short-term intervention developed by the Foster & Adoptive Care Coalition to: 1) increase the number of children placed with relatives/kin at the time they enter the foster care system; and 2) ensure natural and community supports are in place to promote stability for the child.

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