This study analyzed how the implementation of the strategy of extending learning time in a group of adolescents living in residential care contributed to promoting their scientific vocations and increasing their academic expectations and their knowledge of these disciplines.

This paper sets out to explore why formal kinship care has emerged in such a marked way in recent decades by investigating the emergence and development of formal kinship care in two neighboring jurisdictions in Europe where it now accounts for a substantial proportion of all care placements in Scotland and Ireland.

As part of a 3‐year US federal project of family group conferences (FGCs) in one jurisdiction, this study collected fidelity data from professional and family member participants of FGCs, including children and young people. Descriptive data from a small sample of child and young people participating in FGC suggest differences in their perspectives regarding family empowerment, transparency, and inclusion in decision making, when compared with the perspectives of other family members and professionals for whom data are available.

There is little Australian research on the factors that influence decisions to adopt children from out‐of‐home care. This paper presents a mixed methods study that was conducted to address this gap.

The present article first provides an overview of the historical and socio-political context of family separation policies in the US, second a review of the literature on the impact of family separation on children and parents in diverse contexts, and third a description of direct clinical experiences with these children and parents receiving services at the Terra Firma program in the Bronx community in New York.

Using theoretically-informed mediating path models and data from the second National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW II), this study tests the role of harsh physical punishment as a mediator between family income and child protective services (CPS) involvement in the US.

This research summary provides an overview of what young people leaving residential care in Australia need and how those working in residential care can best help young people prepare for independence.

The authors of this study conducted a narrative review to summarise the literature examining the barriers and facilitators of physical activity (PA) engagement among young people living in care.

This paper reviews the literature on human relational factors and their impact on complex care systems for a highly vulnerable population of children and young people in out‐of‐home care (OOHC).

The current study used a quasi-experimental design and propensity score matching to examine the outcomes for children of families served by the Iowa Department of Human Services Parent Partner program, a peer support program to mentor parents who are currently involved in the US child welfare system.

This qualitative case study explores the challenges facing children reunified with their families from an orphanage in Ghana.

Disability Rights International (DRI) llevó a cabo dos investigaciones en Baja California, México –la primera en noviembre de 2018 y la segunda en febrero de 2019, visitando a cuatro instituciones privadas en las que se encuentran niñas, niños, adolescentes y personas –incluidas personas migrantes– con discapacidad. Este informe presenta los resultos de esta investigación.

Disability Rights International (DRI) carried out two investigation trips to Baja California, Mexico, in November 2018 and February 2019, visiting four residential, private institutions for children and adults – including migrants - with disabilities. This report presents the findings from these investigations.

In this article the authors attempt to disentangle different aspects of potentially harmful care for looked after children, as well as to discuss potential pathways to more systematically approach and report adverse events for this group.

This report is the result 4 of a two-year EU funded project “An Early Years Support Centre (EYSC) service in Dushanbe: Reducing poverty, empowering vulnerable families, strengthening partnerships and advocating for rights”. It outlines the model of support that was developed through the EYSC project in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. 

This how-to video breaks down serve and return into 5 simple steps (from Filming Interactions to Nurture Development) and features adults and young children doing each step together.

Esta guía breve del Harvard Center on the Developing Child presenta 5 pasos para cuidadores practicar “saque y volea” con su niño/a.

This brief guide from the Harvard Center on the Developing Child outlines 5 steps for primary caregivers to practice serve and return with their child.

The paper describes the findings of a geographical mapping and analysis of residential care facilities in four regions of Ghana.

This study aimed at investigating specifically whether institutionalization impacts negatively children’s psychological adjustment defined in terms of externalizing behavior, internalizing behavior and self-esteem and whether having living parents has additional influence. Ninety-five institutionalized and 82 not institutionalized children in Rwanda, aged 9 to 16, participated in the study.

This paper from the Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care outlines the Child Rescue Centre's process of transitioning from residential care to family-based care in Sierra Leone.

This final report describes the Economic Strengthening to Keep and Reintegrate Children into Families (ESFAM) project and presents findings from an evaluation of the program, including its implementation and outcomes as well as its impacts. 

This video presents the work of the FARE family strengthening program in Uganda to prevent separation of families and reintegrate children who are separated from their families, including the story of one young person and his family who were impacted by the program.

This snapshot summarises the findings from the responses of 474 16-25 year old care leavers who completed the Your Life Beyond Care (YLBC) survey in 6 local authorities in England - an overall response rate of 30%. This snapshot gives an insight into how care leavers really feel about their lives.

This report from the German Youth Institute (Deutsches Jugendinstitut e.V., DJI) assesses the adoption system in the Netherlands.

This mixed method study explores the postsecondary experiences of foster alumni in a large southwest urban area of the US.

This article argues that the US state of Alaska should enact a state statute to provide clear guidance to state child welfare practitioners and state courts that Alaska’s state government recognizes an Indian custodianship created through Tribal law or custom as a pathway for Indian children to exit the overburdened state foster care system.

This chapter from the boom Child Justice Administration in Africa examines the development of the child justice system in South Africa. The empirical findings in this book revealed the models put in place for alternative care of children in need of care and protection, which the author believes were hindered by inadequate budgetary allocations and could have been recorded in the administration of child justice in South Africa.

This study extends the research on the experiences and outcomes of siblings in care by comprehensively mapping sibling networks both within and outside the care system and measuring sibling estrangement (living apart and lack of contact) over time among children in Scotland.

This open access article explores three related phenomena: first, the abandonment and institutionalization of children with disabilities in China that increased disproportionately in the 2000s; second, the important relationships between such abandonments, culture, economics, and politics in contemporary China; and third, the relationship between such abandonments, the increasing rates at which Chinese orphans with disabilities are being adopted to Western countries through Inter-country Adoption (ICA), and the global politics of ICA and disability.

The aim of this study is to compare the subjective well-being (SWB) of children hosted in institutions and in foster families with the well-being of children living with their families. Results indicate that children in residential care have a lower SWB in all variables compared to foster care and general populations groups.

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.

This article uses a content analysis methodology to critically examine and compare the findings of six recent Australian child protection inquiries (five at state and territory level and one Commonwealth) in relation to their discrete sections on leaving care.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families funded Partnerships to Demonstrate the Effectiveness of Supportive Housing for Families in the Child Welfare System, a five-year, $25 million demonstration that provided supportive housing to families in the child welfare system, in five sites. This report summarizes the results of the cost study, which estimates the costs of the housing and services offered in the demonstration and any savings, or additional costs, resulting from the demonstration’s effects on families’ use of homeless programs and child welfare services.

The VACS are designed to measure the prevalence, past 12-month incidence and circumstances surrounding sexual, physical and emotional violence in childhood, adolescence (before age 18) and young adulthood (before age 24).

The Lesotho VACS Fact Sheet provides country-specific data on sexual and physical violence against children in Lesotho.

This Training Manual seeks to raise awareness of the content of the Prepare for Leaving Care: Practice Guidance, build knowledge and skills to support young people through the process of leaving care and help trainees to understand and develop some of the tools which are helpful in the leaving care process.

There have long been doubts within social work about the viability of reconciling participatory practice with the statutory power that comes hand-in-hand with child protection work. This book explores this issue by proposing an original theory of children’s participation within statutory child protection interventions. It prioritises children’s voices through presentation of a wide collection of children’s experiences of the UK child protection system including three unique in-depth accounts.

This study prospectively examined risk factors of first time delinquency for maltreated youth between ages 9 and 14.

To support innovation in addressing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), the authors have undertaken a review of evidence on common approaches to prevent ACEs and/or mitigate their negative impacts in Wales.

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 paper describes two successful models in which African American families both self-recruited, and were recruited by agencies seeking to place African American children.

This open access paper reports on experiences and reflections of a group of children and young people and academic researchers who developed a Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) group that was set up in the context of an ongoing health service intervention trial with Looked after children and care leavers (denoted as LAC).

This paper asks how state parental responsibility towards unaccompanied minors is given meaning, and with what consequences, for both frontline workers and unaccompanied minors alike?

This paper discusses critical tasks facing adoptive parents of transracially adopted persons (TRAs), what we know about parents’ role and children’s outcomes.

When children are adopted from the care system staying in touch with members of their birth families must be considered.This research paper draws on the English experience.

This study examined the possible differences in educational level by comparing Finnish national register data for 814 former reform school (RS) residents in four cohorts (placed in out-of-home care in 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2006) to 4021 of their peers in the general population matched by gender, age, and place of birth.

This report provides findings from the Urban Institute's impact analysis of a program that provided supportive housing to families in the child welfare system in the US.

This podcast episode describes what self-harm is and how social workers can support young people and carers who are self-harming.

In commemoration of its founding 100 years ago, Save the Children is releasing its third annual Global Childhood Report to celebrate progress for children.