Pediatrician Guidance in Supporting Families of Children Who Are Adopted, Fostered, or in Kinship Care

Veronnie F. Jones, Elaine E. Schulte, Douglas Waite - Pediatrics

This paper explores how pediatricians can support families who care for children and adolescents who are fostered and adopted while attending to children’s medical needs and helping each child attain their developmental potential.

Exploring Racial Disproportionalities and Disparities for Black Families Involved with the Child Welfare System: A Scoping Review Protocol

Travonne Edwards, Amina Hussain, Christa Sato, Jason King, Michael Saini, Bryn King - Social Science Protocols

This systemic scoping review will provide a succinct synthesis of the current literature on Black disproportionality and disparity in child welfare.

File

Breaking Point: COVID-19 and the Child Protection Crisis in Afghanistan

World Vision

Key findings from this report demonstrate that due to the negative impact of the outbreak, the vulnerability of the households further increased and already existing dangerous coping strategies such as child labor, child marriage and decrease of food consumption have been worsened by financial insecurity for families and losses of household income.

File

Parental emotional neglect and left-behind children’s problem behaviors: The mediating role of deviant peer affiliation and the moderating role of beliefs about adversity

Banglin Yang, Cancan Xiong, Jin Huang - Children and Youth Services Review

The current study investigated the effects of parental emotional neglect on left-behind children’s externalizing problem behaviors, the mediating role of deviant peer affiliation, and the moderating role of beliefs about adversity in the association between parental emotional neglect and left-behind children’s externalizing problem behaviors.

Children on the brink: Risks for child protection, sexual abuse, and related mental health problems in the COVID-19 pandemic

Sheila Ramaswamy, Shekhar Seshadri - Indian Journal of Psychiatry

This article focuses on examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its socio-economic consequences on children in adversity in India, describing the increased child protection and psychosocial risks they are placed at, during and in the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis and its lockdown situation.

Towards recognising practitioners working in out-of-home care as experts in everyday life: A conceptual critique

Claire Cameron - International Journal of Social Pedagogy

This article examines the case for greater recognition of the children’s workforce in out-of-home care (OHC), and situates the concept of ‘expertise’ in the rise of recognition of children’s status as competent social actors, as well as in professionalisation debates.

File

The Relationship between Loneliness, Self-Efficacy, and Satisfaction with Life in Left-Behind Middle School Students in China: Taking Binhai County of Jiangsu Province as an Example

Lei Jiang, Mingyue Liao, Ronghua Ying - Best Evidence in Chinese Education

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between loneliness, self-efficacy, and satisfaction with life of Left-behind middle school students in China.

File

Trends in the prevalence and incidence of orphanhood in children and adolescents <20 years in rural KwaZulu-Natal South Africa, 2000-2014

Gabriela Mejia-Pailles, Ann Berrington, Nuala McGrath, Victoria Hosegood - PLoS ONE

In South Africa, large increases in early adult mortality during the 1990s and early 2000s have reversed since public HIV treatment rollout in 2004. In a rural population in KwaZulu-Natal, the authors of this study investigated trends in parental mortality and orphanhood from 2000–2014.

File

The impact of parental migration on non-cognitive abilities of left behind children in northwestern China

Han Liu, Fang Chang, Hannah Corn, Yi Zhang, Yaojiang Shi - Journal of Asian Economics

Using survey data consisting of 5002 eighth graders from 160 middle schools in northwestern China, this paper investigates how parental migration affects children’s non-cognitive abilities, as is measured by Big Five components of conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, and openness, as well as children’s grit.

Social Protection & Child Protection: Working together to protect children from the impact of COVID-19 and beyond

The Alliance for Children Protection in Humanitarian Action, UNICEF, Save the Children

This paper presents evidence of how social protection approaches can contribute to child protection outcomes and outlines recommendations which call for strong mobilization and uptake by governments, UN and multilateral development agencies, regional bodies, donors, and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).

File

International Kinship Care Guide

Cross Border Child Safeguarding Working Group, Children and Families Across Borders

This guide is the first of its kind which comprehensively addresses the best practice for placing Looked After Children currently in the UK into the care of a family member(s) who lives in another country.

File

COVID-19: Adapting Child Protection Case Management MOOC Follow-Up

MOOC Taskforce

Following thousands of comments and responses posted by the 8,000 course participants for the MOOC on COVID-19: Adapting Child Protection Case Management, as well as research and evidence being issued by child protection agencies, three international experts were invited to provide short videos containing advice and opinions of experts in different regions of the world regarding the need to plan for support for children for the evolving situation of COVID-19 and in particular post-pandemic scenario. 

Social Welfare Workforce Capacity Assessment to develop a long-term capacity building strategy for the social welfare service sector in Ghana

Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, and UNICEF Ghana

This report notes existing gaps and needs in social service provision and provides recommendations for specific actions to strengthen the social welfare workforce in Ghana.

File

Data collection on children in residential care: Protocol and tools for a national census and survey on children in residential care

UNICEF

In response to the need for accurate and reliable statistics on children in residential care, UNICEF has developed the first-ever comprehensive methodology to collect data on children living in residential care settings by applying a number of preexisting tools from international survey programmes, such as the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) and other validated instruments, to an institutional population.

Behind the Mask of Care: A Report Based on the Results of the Situation Analysis of Baby Homes in Ukraine

USAID, UK aid, Hope and Homes for Children

This report presents the findings of the 2019-2020 assessment conducted within the Pilot assessment of residential healthcare facilities for children and development of recommendations for reform in five baby homes of Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava and Kherson regions of Ukraine. In addition to the findings from the assessment of baby homes, the report presents results from the region assessments regarding needs in the medical rehabilitation, paediatric palliative care, and social services for children aged 0-6 years and their families. 

File

Early Childhood Development Index 2030

UNICEF

The ECDI2030 is a tool, developed by UNICEF, to measure progress toward SDG indicator 4.2.1. It captures the achievement of key developmental milestones by children between the ages of 24 and 59 months. Mothers or primary caregivers are asked 20 questions about the way their children behave in certain everyday situations, and the skills and knowledge they have acquired.

Children in care institutions

Evie Browne - K4D Helpdesk Report

This paper explores the question: What does the literature tell us about how many children worldwide are in institutions/orphanages; how likely they are to be exploited and in which ways; and what interventions are most effective in preventing this?

File

Situation Analysis of Children in Uganda - 2019

Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, and UNICEF Uganda, with support from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics

This situation analysis explores multidimensional poverty in Uganda, including an examination of both material and social needs of children – including health care and education, a social and family life, clean and safe drinking water, housing that is not squalid and overcrowded, adequate clothing, and regular meals with sufficient and nutritious food.

File

Principle of Subsidiarity - ISS/IRC comparative working paper 1: Spotlight on solutions

International Social Service

Having the best interest principle and taking into account the individual needs of each child in intercountry adoptions, this paper endeavours to promote the two tier approach of the principle of subsidiarity by examining the drafting spirit behind international standards (Section 1), providing examples of legislation and jurisprudence (Section 2) and identifying promising practices (Section 3) that reflect the principle.

File

What Works to Protect Children on the Move: Rapid Evidence Assessment

Rachel Marcus, Amina Khan, Carmen Leon-Himmelstine and Jenny Rivett - UNICEF

This rapid evidence assessment (REA) aimed to answer three questions: (1) What interventions have been effective in ensuring the protection of children on the move? (2) What are the implementation factors that make these interventions effective or that hamper effectiveness (for example the context of the intervention, and specific design features such as who is targeted)? and (3) What kinds of social welfare and child protection systems are linked to effective interventions?

File

“I Had No Hope, I Had No Help at All”: Insights from a First Study of Fathers and Recurrent Care Proceedings

Georgia Philip, Lindsay Youansamouth, Stuart Bedston, Karen Broadhurst, Yang Hu, John Clifton and Marian Brandon - Societies

This article presents data from the first large-scale study of fathers involved in repeat (or recurrent) care proceedings in England. The study consisted of three elements: an analysis of population-level administrative data from the Child and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS), a survey of fathers in pre-proceedings and care proceedings, and a qualitative longitudinal (QL) study of recurrent fathers.

File

Heightened sensitivity to the caregiving environment during adolescence: implications for recovery following early‐life adversity

Natalie L. Colich, Margaret A. Sheridan, Kathryn L. Humphreys, Mark Wade, Florin Tibu, Charles A. Nelson, Charles H. Zeanah, Nathan A. Fox, Katie A. McLaughlin - The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry

This study used data from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project – a randomized controlled trial of foster care for children raised in psychosocially depriving institutions – to examine the associations of the caregiving environment with reward processing, executive functioning, and internalizing and externalizing psychopathology at ages 8, 12, and 16 years, and evaluated whether these associations change across development.

Team Decision-making Service Planning for Children and Adolescents at Risk for Placement Instability: Fidelity and Initial Outcomes

Sonya J. Leathers, Roni Diamant-Wilson, Jill E. Spielfogel, Lee Annes, Amy Thomas, Shirlyn Garrett-Wilson - Children and Youth Services Review

This research focused on a U.S. statewide program that uses team decision-making meetings to identify needs and plan services for youth who are at risk for instability while in foster care.

Examining the Impact of COVID-19 on Parental Stress: A Study of Foster Parents

J. Jay Miller, Morgan E. Cooley & Brittany P. Mihalec-Adkins - Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal

The overarching purpose of this exploratory study was to understand how foster parents’ parenting-related stress levels have changed over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the role of sociodemographic characteristics in exacerbating risk for increased stress.

File

Family Law and Policy for LGBTQ Individuals and Families: Adoption, Foster Care, Assisted Reproduction, and Parental Rights

Naomi G. Goldberg and Amira Hasenbush - Politics, Oxford University Press

This article argues that the patchwork of legal protections across U.S. states means that many LGBTQ-headed families lack needed security, stability, and legal recognition.

Reproductive coercion, intimate partner violence, and pregnancy risk among adolescent women with a history of foster care involvement

Morgan E. PettyJohn, Taylor A. Reid, Elizabeth Miller, Katherine W. Bogen, Heather L. McCauley - Children and Youth Services Review

The current study is the first to explore the prevalence of reproductive coercion among adolescent women currently or previously involved in the U.S. foster care system.

Child Maltreatment in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Proposed Global Framework on Research, Policy and Practice

Carmit Katz, Sidnei R. Priolo Filho, Jill Korbin, et al - Child Abuse & Neglect

The current paper aims to suggest a framework for risk and protective factors that need to be considered in child protection in its various domains of research, policy, and practice during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

EASO Guidance on Reception Conditions for Unaccompanied Children: Operational standards and indicators

EASO, European Asylum Support Office

This guidance on reception conditions for unaccompanied children was created by the European Asylum Support Office in order to support the development of reception tools, but also to enable the planning and provision of adequate care for children on the move. 

File

The Nature of Domestic and Family Violence Reported to Child Protection Prenatally

Jenna Meiksans, Stewart McDougall, Fiona Arney, Rosemaria Flaherty, Alwin Chong, Fiona Ward, Cathy Taylor - Children and Youth Services Review

For this study, a qualitative case file review was carried out to examine the nature of violence recorded in the narratives of 91 prenatal child protection reports from a single Australian jurisdiction in 2014.

The House Project for Young People Leaving Care: Evaluation report

Jo Dixon, Caroline Cresswell and Jade Ward, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York

This report presents findings from an evaluation of the House Project (HP) in the U.K., which aims to improve outcomes for young people (in accommodation, education, employment and training (EET), wellbeing, autonomy and integration) and service level outcomes for young people leaving care aged 16 and over.

File

Don’t Let Me Fall Through the Cracks: Homelessness amongst Care-Experienced Young People in Wales

Sharon Lovell - End Youth Homelessness Cymru

This report is based on the voices and experiences of care experienced young people who have been, or are currently, homeless across Wales. The aim of this research is to amplify these young people’s voices to highlight the challenges they have faced when homeless and the need for reform of systems which have failed to prevent their homelessness.

File