‘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

Hannah CM Morgan, Lizette Nolte, Barbara Rishworth, Clarissa Stevens - Adoption & Fostering

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

Catherine Frogley, Mary John, Ruth Denton, Dawn Querstret - Adoption & Fostering

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).

Early Deprivation and Children’s Emotional Development: A Developmental Perspective

Nicole B. Perry & Megan R. Gunnar - Handbook of Emotional Development

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

Marta Garcia-Molsosa, Jordi Collet-Sabé, Joan Carles Martori, Carme Montserrat - Children and Youth Services Review

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

Loring Jones - Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services

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

Helen Whincup, Maggie Grant, Cheryl Burgess, Nina Biehal - Universities of Stirling, York, and Lancaster in collaboration with Adoption and Fostering Alliance (AFA) Scotland

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.

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Children looked after away from home aged five and under in Scotland: experiences, pathways and outcomes

Linda Cusworth, Nina Biehal, Helen Whincup, Margaret Grant, Alison Hennessy - Universities of Stirling, York, and Lancaster in collaboration with Adoption and Fostering Alliance (AFA) Scotland

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.

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Linking two administrative data sets about looked after children: testing feasibility and enhancing understanding

Jade Hooper, Linda Cusworth, Helen Whincup - Universities of Stirling, York, and Lancaster in collaboration with Adoption and Fostering Alliance (AFA) Scotland

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.

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Pathways to Permanence for children who become looked after in Scotland

Nina Biehal, Linda Cusworth, Jade Hooper, Helen Whincup, Marina Shapira

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

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Perspectives on kinship care, foster care and adoption: the voices of children, carers and adoptive parents

Maggie Grant, Helen Whincup, Cheryl Burgess - Universities of Stirling, York, and Lancaster in collaboration with Adoption and Fostering Alliance (AFA) Scotland

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.

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Permanently Progressing: Building Secure Futures for Children in Scotland

Universities of Stirling, York, and Lancaster in collaboration with Adoption and Fostering Alliance (AFA) 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

Matthew A. Jay and Louise McGrath-Lone - Systematic Reviews

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?

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Aid Groups Seek to Reduce Orphanages, Expand Family-Based Care Globally

Shannon Senefeld, Philip Goldman and Anne Smith - Health Progress

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."

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Who Am I and Where Am I From? Substitute Residential Home Children’s Insights into Their Lives and Individual Identities

Ingrid Sindi & Judit Strömpl - Child & Youth Services

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

Taylor Fry - Government of NSW, Their Futures Matter

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

Charles H Zeanah, Nicole G Wilke, Carole Shauffer, Tamsen Rochat, Amanda H Howard, Mary Dozier - The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health

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.

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Care of Abandoned Children in Sunni Islamic Law: Early Modern Egypt in Theory and Practice

Ahmed Fekry Ibrahim - Filiation and the Protection of Parentless Children

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?

Guro B Omland & Agnes Andenas - Qualitative Social Work

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.

Pursuing collaboration to improve services for child welfare-involved housing unstable families

Rong Bai, Cyleste Collins, Robert Fischer, David Crampton - Children and Youth Services Review

This study explores facilitators of and barriers to effective collaboration between workers at partner organizations working on a program focused on the reunification of housing-unstable families with their children in out-of-home placement in the US.

All Children – All Families 2019 Report: Celebrating Everyday Change-Makers in Child Welfare

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation

This report highlights more than 70 child welfare agencies across the United States that partnered with the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s All Children - All Families project to improve the services they provide to the LGBTQ community, including children in foster care and prospective foster and adoptive parents.

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Assessment of Self-Esteem and its Associated Factors among Adolescents Living in Orphanage and with Parents at Home

Sushmita Chakraborty, Shipra Modak, Susmita Halder - Indian Journal of Applied Research

A descriptive study was undertaken to assess self-esteem and its associated factors among adolescents living in orphanage and with parents at home in a selected orphanage and community, West Bengal with the objectives to assess level of self-esteem among adolescents living in orphanage and in home and to find out the associated factors related to self-esteem.

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‘Being a student with care experience is very daunting’: Findings from a survey of care experienced students in Scottish colleges and universities

Linda O’Neill, Neil Harrison, Nadine Fowler, Graham Connelly - CELCIS

The research presented in this report aimed to broaden and deepen understanding of the barriers and enablers that care experienced students encounter in going to, being at and staying at college and university in Scotland.

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Alternative Care in India: Issues and Prospects

Seema Naaz and Zubair Meenai - Rajagiri Journal of Social Development

This paper presents the current vulnerabilities faced by children and the scenario of child protection in India. While discussing the legal provisions prevailing in the country, it sheds light on the socio-cultural barriers that are creating resistance within the society in making the Alternative Care model (and the process of deinstitutionalisation of children) a success. Lastly it suggests viable options that may be helpful for the same.

International Migration and Remittance Effects on the School Enrollment of Children Staying Behind: Evidence from Tajikistan

Enerelt Murakami - Asian Development Bank Institute

This paper explores the impact of international migration on school enrollment of children staying behind in Tajikistan, by using data from a large nationally representative household survey. The results show that migration of household members reduces the probability of enrolling in school by 10 percentage points for children who belong to households with migrants. The effect of parental migration is much larger than that of migration of other household members. Receiving remittances reduces the adverse impact of migration by only 1‒3 percentage points.

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Latent profile analysis of anxiety disorder among left-behind children in rural Southern China: a crosssectional study

Haining Liao, Minyi Pan, Weinan Li, Changqi Lin, Xuhao Zhu, Xingru Li, Jinghua Li, Shudong Zhou - BMJ Open

This study sought to identify the heterogeneous characteristics of rural left-behind children’s anxiety and explore the related factors through a cross-sectional survey using a school-based sample in January 2018 in Qingxin district, Qingyuan city, Guangdong province, China. 

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Desinternar, sí. Pero ¿cómo?: Controversias para comprender y transformar las propuestas institucionales de protección a la infancia y la adolescencia

Diego Silva Balerio y Pablo Domínguez Collette - UNICEF Uruguay y La Barca

En esta publicación, a partir de la experiencia de trabajo y la reflexión sobre su propia práctica, La Barca ordena, sistematiza y pone a disposición de todos los actores del sistema de protección a la infancia de Uruguay los principales aprendizajes de la tarea realizada en los últimos años.

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Jóvenes sin Tiempo: Riesgos y oportunidades de los jóvenes extutelados en el tránsito a la vida adulta

Miguel Melendro Estefanía - El Centro Reina Sofía sobre Adolescencia y Juventud y la FAD

La presente investigación trata de los jóvenes sin tiempo y cómo trabajar, con ellos y ellas, en un tránsito inclusivo a la vida adulta, especialmente jóvenes que han pasado una parte importante de sus vidas en recursos residenciales del sistema de protección y que cuando son mayores de edad deben dejarlos para salir a la vida adulta, en un tránsito cargado de complejidades.

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Llaves para la autonomía: Acompañamiento de adolescentes desde el sistema de protección hacia la vida adulta

UNICEF y DONCEL

El presente curso surge del Acuerdo de Cooperación suscripto en 2014 entre UNICEF Argentina y la Asociación civil por los derechos de niños niñas adolescentes y jóvenes Doncel que tiene por objetivo principal contribuir a desarrollar un modelo de acompañamiento integral para adolescentes residentes en los hogares asistenciales de las provincias argentinas de Misiones, Jujuy, Chaco, Santa Fe y Tucumán en transición del sistema de protección hacia la autonomía y la vida adulta.

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Construyendo Autonomía: Un estudio entre pares sobre la transición a la vida adulta de jóvenes sin cuidados parentales

UNICEF, DONCEL, y FLACSO Argentina

Las evidencias presentadas en este documento fueron elaboradas a partir de una investigación que se propuso realizar una primera aproximación a la situación de los jóvenes sin cuidados parentales frente al egreso en Argentina.

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Association between early parental deprivation and cellular immune function among adults in rural Fujian, China

Aki Yazawa, Yosuke Inoue, Guoxi Cai, Raoping Tu, Meng Huang, Fei He, Jie Chen, Taro Yamamoto, Chiho Watanabe - Developmental Psychobiology

This study investigated the role of childhood parental deprivation in the association between quality of life (QOL) and the Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) antibody titer, a marker of cellular immune functioning, using data from 734 adults living in seven communities in rural Fujian, China.

Child protection inequalities in Aotearoa New Zealand: Social gradient and the ‘inverse intervention law’

Emily Keddell, Gabrielle Davie, Dave Barson - Children and Youth Services Review

This article reports on a study of the relationships between child protection system contact and small area-level deprivation in New Zealand. The study found that, compared to children living in the least deprived quintile of small areas, children in the most deprived quintile had, on average, 13 times the rate of substantiation, 18 times the rate of a family group conference, and 6 times their chance of placement in foster care. Findings suggest that action is needed to address the causes of deprivation, provide services that respond to families living in poverty, and undertake further research to examine the interactions between demand and supply of services across deprivation levels.

Alternative Family Care: Manual for staff working with reception families and unaccompanied children living in reception families

Nidos, Danish Red Cross, Jugendhilfe Süd-Niedersachsen, Minor-Ndako, Organization for Aid to Refugees

This manual has been developed for professionals working with reception families and the unaccompanied children living with them.

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Exploring diversity in the educational pathways of care-experienced adults: Findings from a life course study of education and care

Eavan Brady & Robbie Gilligan - Children and Youth Services Review

Guided by the life course principle of expected ‘diversity in life course trajectories’ this paper identifies the pathways taken through education among 18 care-experienced adults (aged 24–36) in Ireland and some of the experiences and events that influenced these pathways.

Mental health of children in foster care, a literature review

Even M, Sutter-Dallay AL - Encephale

In France more than 140 000 children live in foster homes under the responsibility of the French Child Protection Agency. These children have lived in environments that cannot be good for their development and have been separated from their families which have to have consequences on their mental development. A literature review in France and abroad was made to identify the profiles of these children, their risk factors, and the mental disorders they can present.

What Constitutes Risk of Future Maltreatment Among Young Mothers? An Examination of Child Protection Investigations in Ontario, Canada

Bryn King, Barbara Fallon, Ami Goulden, Carolyn O’Connor, and Joanne Filippelli - Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services

This article examines characteristics and decision making related to investigating workers’ determinations that young children of adolescent and young adult mothers are at risk of future maltreatment.

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Child welfare characteristics in a sample of youth involved in commercial sex: An exploratory study

Johanna K. P. Greeson, Daniel Treglia, Debra Schilling Wolfe, Sarah Wasch, Richard J. Gelles - Child Abuse & Neglect

The aims of this study were (1) to estimate child welfare characteristics in a sample of homeless young people in the US who engaged in commercial sex (CS); and (2) to compare young people who were sex trafficked (ST) to those who engaged in some other form of CS.

Achieving Broad-Scale Impacts for Social Programs

Ron Haskins, Kenneth A. Dodge, and Deborah Daro - The Future of Children

In this brief, Ron Haskins, Kenneth A. Dodge, and Deborah Daro call for a system of psychosocial care for young families in the US, highlighting the the Family Connects program which aims to reach every family with a newborn child in a given community through a system that combines home visiting by trained nurses; community alignment through a directory of services to connect families to the resources they need; and data and monitoring through an electronic data system that acts as a family-specific psychosocial and educational record.

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2019 Trafficking in Persons Report

U.S. State Department

The U.S. State Department Trafficking in Persons Report sheds light on the practices of modern slavery around the world and highlights specific steps governments can take to protect victims of human trafficking, prevent trafficking crimes, and prosecute traffickers in the United States and around the world. The report includes several references to the links between orphanages and trafficking in relation to Nepal, Nigeria, Cambodia, Haiti, Sri Lanka, Moldova, and other countries.

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The Care Leaver Experience: A Report on Children and Young People’s Experiences in and After Leaving Residential Care in Uganda

Ismael Ddumba-Nyanzi, Melissa Fricke, Angie Hong Max, Mai Nambooze, Mark Riley - Uganda Care Leavers project

In order to address the need for evidence-based research about the care leaver experience, a study was facilitated by the Uganda Care Leavers project - sponsored by Alternative Care Initiatives (ACI), a Ugandan NGO, and BULA, a U.S. 501(c)(3) non-profit organization - to conduct peer-led participatory workshops throughout the country. These care leavers, identified by local community leaders and networks, were invited to participate in workshops where they completed surveys about their experiences, the results of which are presented in this report. Survey results are the basis of this study’s recommendations and suggestions for future care reform.

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Community-based surveillance of unaccompanied and separated children in drought-affected northern Ethiopia

Matthew MacFarlane, Beth L. Rubenstein, Terry Saw, Daniel Mekonnen, Craig Spencer and Lindsay Stark - BMC International Health and Human Rights

In this study, a mobile phone-based surveillance system was established in a drought-affected district in northern Ethiopia to assess the feasibility of using community focal points to monitor cases of unaccompanied and separated children.

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Care and protection of tamariki Māori in the family court system

Tania Williams, Jacinta Ruru, Horiana Irwin-Easthope, Khylee Quince, Heather Gifford - te Arotahi Series Paper

This paper urges the government and nation of New Zealand to give effect to long-standing Kaupapa Māori models for developing the new required evaluation measures aimed at reducing the disparities for Māori children and young persons who come to the attention of Oranga Tamariki Ministry for Children.

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