“Losing the care of your parents is equal to losing your life” Findings from digital stories in Colombia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Rwanda and Zimbabwe
This report explores what family means to children and adults in five countries using the digital storytelling technique.
¿A quién le importa? Perspectivas del niño y la familia sobre el cuidado efectivo, quién lo brinda y por qué es importante
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.
Who Cares? Child and family perspectives on effective care, who provides it and why it matters
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.
The needs of carers: applying a hierarchy of needs to a foster and kinship care context
As foster and kinship carers are central to the lives of looked after children, it is important to recognise their unmet needs and the impact of these on the caring task. This article explores these issues by applying a hierarchy of needs to the foster and kinship care context, drawing on the perspectives of those involved, a group of Australian foster and kinship carers.
‘My children are my world’: Raising the voices of birth mothers with substantial experience of counselling following the loss of their children to adoption or foster care
The aim of this article is to raise the voices of a group of birth mothers, a historically stigmatised, powerless and neglected group, with substantial experience of counselling following the loss of a child.
‘They don’t meet the stereotypes in the boxes…’: Foster carers’ and clinicians’ views on the utility of psychometric tools in the mental health assessment of looked after children
The current study is the first to explore the perspectives of foster carers and clinicians working in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in relation to the use of two brief screening tools: the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and the Brief Assessment Checklists (BACs).
Baby drop-off box: Comparative Case Studies of The United States of America (สถานบริการตู้รับเด็กทารก: กรณีศึกษาเปรียบเทียบสหรัฐอเมริกา)
This article aims to study the legal measures that Thailand should take to solve the problem of abandoned children in unsafe places.
Early Deprivation and Children’s Emotional Development: A Developmental Perspective
In this chapter of the Handbook of Emotional Development, the authors discuss animal models that support developmental theories underscoring the importance of the caregiver–infant relationship for emotional development, explore how varying degrees of neglect may be differentially associated with subsequent emotional outcome, and review empirical work in this area from a developmental perspective by addressing how early neglect may impact the development of biological and behavioral mechanisms that underlie emotional functioning across multiple developmental periods.
School satisfaction among youth in residential care: A multi-source analysis
The aim of this article is to analyse the evaluations made by the main stakeholders involved in the school situation of young people in residential care and propose an explanatory model of their level of school satisfaction (SS) based on variables related to the youngsters' subjective well-being. The sample was composed of 219 subjects from five European countries (Germany, Austria, Croatia, Spain and France), including 75 young people, 75 caregivers, and 69 teachers.
Remaining in Foster Care After Age 18 and Youth Outcomes at the Transition to Adulthood: A Review
This review examines the legislative history leading up to extended care, the research on youth leaving foster care, youth preferences for extended care, the competition of extended care with permanency options, and the effects of extended foster care on transition-age youth.
Decision making for children
The Decision making for children report is one strand of the Permanently Progressing? study. In this strand, during 2015-17, 160 decision makers were interviewed across Scotland mainly in groups, but some individually.
Children looked after away from home aged five and under in Scotland: experiences, pathways and outcomes
The aim of this particular strand of the Permanently Progressing? study was to investigate the experiences, pathways, and outcomes of children who became looked after away from home, together with the factors associated with achieving permanence.
Linking two administrative data sets about looked after children: testing feasibility and enhancing understanding
This report on the linkage of Children Looked After Statistics (CLAS) with data from Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) is one strand of the Permanently Progressing? study. The study is the first in Scotland to investigate decision making, permanence, progress, outcomes and belonging for children who became ‘looked after’ at home, or away from home (with kinship carers, foster carers or prospective adopters) when they were aged five and under.
Pathways to Permanence for children who become looked after in Scotland
This report presents the findings from strand one of the Permanently Progressing? study, Pathways to Permanence for children who become looked after in Scotland. This strand analysed data from the Children Looked After Statistics (CLAS) provided to the Scottish Government by all 32 local authorities on the total cohort of children who became looked after during the year 1 August 2012 - 31 July 2013 when they were aged five and under
Perspectives on kinship care, foster care and adoption: the voices of children, carers and adoptive parents
This report has been completed as one part of the study Permanently Progressing? Building secure futures for children in Scotland which heard directly from children about their experiences.
Permanently Progressing: Building Secure Futures for Children in Scotland
After almost five years of detailed research and analysis, the reports of the Permanently Progressing study (phase one) were published on 20 June 2019. The study investigated decision making, permanence, progress, outcomes and belonging for a large cohort (1,836 children) of all children in Scotland who became looked after in 2012-13, when they were aged five or under.
Educational outcomes of children in contact with social care in England: a systematic review
This open access systematic review aimed to appraise the extant research evidence from longitudinal studies and answer the question: how do educational outcomes differ between children in contact with Children’s Social Care (CSC) and the general population in the UK?
Aid Groups Seek to Reduce Orphanages, Expand Family-Based Care Globally
In this piece for Health Progress, the Journal of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, Shannon Senefeld, Philip Goldman and Anne Smith explain why many aid groups are working to end the use of orphanages in favor of family-based care and describe the work of the Changing the Way We Care initiative which seeks to "mobilize other likeminded organizations, raise awareness, promote new policies and encourage well-meaning donors to shift their support away from orphanages and toward families."
Who Am I and Where Am I From? Substitute Residential Home Children’s Insights into Their Lives and Individual Identities
In this article, the authors provide children’s insights into their own life experiences and individual identities. The data was collected during an ethnographic research in one of Estonia’s SOS Children’s Villages (SOS CV).
Forecasting Future Outcomes: Stronger Communities Investment Unit — 2018 Insights Report
This report, which was authored by Taylor Fry with support from Their Futures Matter (TFM) - a landmark reform of the Government of New South Wales (NSW), Australia to deliver improved outcomes for vulnerable children, young people and their families - and stakeholder agencies, presents key results and insights from the TFM Investment Model, an actuarial model of future outcomes and costs of providing key government services to children and young people in NSW.
Misguided altruism: the risks of orphanage volunteering
While much of the published research on orphanage volunteering has focused on the effects of the practice on volunteers, the authors of this comment paper from the Lancet argue that there is also substantial reason for concern about the harm this practice might have on the children—especially in young children (ie, ≤5 years)—being raised in these settings.
Care of Abandoned Children in Sunni Islamic Law: Early Modern Egypt in Theory and Practice
In this chapter of Filiation and the Protection of Parentless Children, the author shows the ways in which premodern Muslim jurists and judges (with focus on early modern Egypt) were able to circumvent the prohibition of adoption through discursive moves and practices, which helped create a family life for many parentless and non-biological children.
Peer relationships at residential care institutions for unaccompanied refugee minors: An under-utilised resource?
Without access to their own families, how do young, unaccompanied refugee minors re-establish their social lives in ways that facilitate a sense of togetherness in their everyday lives during resettlement? This question was approached by exploring young persons’ creation of relational practices and the kinds of sociomaterial conditions that seemed to facilitate the evolvement of these practices in Norway, including the professional caregivers’ contributions.
“No Mother Wants Her Child to Migrate” Vulnerability of Children on the Move in the Horn of Africa
The report highlights how children’s movement is driven by different motivations, exposes children to different forms of harm, and presents multiple barriers to accessing services.