Emotional and behavior problems in adopted children – The role of early adversities and adoptive parents’ regulation and behavior

Fabienne Hornfeck, Ina Bovenschen, Sabine Heene, Janin Zimmermann, Annabel Zwönitzer, Heinz Kindler - Child Abuse & Neglect

This study analyzes the influence of children’s preadoptive history and adoptive parents’ characteristics on the psychosocial adjustment of nationally and internationally adopted children in Germany.

Preparing Youth in Foster Care for College Through an Early Outreach Program

Royel M. Johnson, Terrell L. Strayhorn - Journal of College Student Development

To help increase the college preparation of local foster youth in a Midwestern city in the US, the authors developed a working group comprised of foster youth nominated by agency staff, staff from a university research center that sponsored and coordinated the program, local community leaders who work with foster youth, and city government representatives.

‘Getting our voices out there’: acceptability of a mental health participation programme for young people with out of home care experience in Australia

Jessie Rafeld, Kristen Moeller-Saxone, Sue Cotton, Simon Rice, Katherine Monson, Carol Harvey, Helen Herrman - Health Promotion International

The Bounce Project is a pilot youth-leadership mental health training programme co-designed with young people who have experienced out-of-home-care (OoHC). In this study, the authors evaluated the Bounce Project from the young people’s perspectives to explore the acceptability, successes and limitations of the training to promote the participant’s mental health and their contribution to system level change.

The Role of Agency in Shaping the Educational Journeys of Care‐experienced Adults: Insights from a Life Course Study of Education and Care

Eavan Brady & Robbie Gilligan - Children & Society

The authors of this study use life course theory to explore the role of agency in shaping the educational pathways of 18 Irish adults (aged 24–36 years) with care experience.

File

Partnership Due Diligence Assessment Tool

ReThink Orphanages Australia

The Partner Due Diligence Assessment Tool was developed specifically for charities seeking to partner with overseas organisations who provide residential care services for children. It is designed to help you determine whether your partner or prospective partner is operating in accordance with standard notions of good practice and international norms.

File

Caregiver ratings of executive functions among foster children in middle childhood: Associations with early adversity and school adjustment

Pablo Carrera, Jesús M. Jiménez-Morago, Maite Román, Esperanza León - Children and Youth Services Review

This study sought to analyze the executive functions of a sample of 43 Spanish foster children aged between five and nine years (M = 7.51, SD = 1.29), using a caregiver-reported questionnaire.

Exploring the declining rates of state social work intervention in an English local authority using Family Group Conferences

Robin Sen & Calum Webb - Children and Youth Services Review

This article draws on national data and quantitative data from a study of ‘City’, a local authority in the north of England with a large Family Group Conference service.

Meeting the Costs of Family Care: Household Economic Strengthening to Prevent Children’s Separation and Support Reintegration - A Resource Guide

Lisa Laumann and Emily Namey, FHI 360

This resource guide aims to assist program designers, funders, and implementers to select and incorporate appropriate and effective household economic strengthening (HES) measures into programs to preserve or reestablish family care for children.

File

Recovery from Severe Deprivation: The Bucharest Early Intervention Project

Charles H. Zeanah - Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

The purpose of this presentation is to summarize findings from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP) - the only randomized, controlled trial of foster care (FC) as an alternative to institutional care ever conducted - regarding psychopathology and competence through age 12 years.

Children in care: Where do children entering care at different ages end up? An analysis of local authority administrative data

Elsbeth Neil, Lisanne Gitsels, June Thoburn - Children and Youth Services Review

This paper explores the usefulness of undertaking a longitudinal analysis of these data at local authority level to determine the care pathways for children entering care, differentiating by age at entry.

Keeping the Promise: Ending Violence Against Children by 2030

The Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children

This report from the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children outlines the impacts of violence against children and proposes recommendations for safeguarding the right of every child to protection from all forms of violence.

File

General comment No. 24 (2019) on children’s rights in the child justice system

Committee on the Rights of the Child

This general comment from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child addresses children's rights in the child justice system. The general comment notes several concerns and recommendations regarding the deprivation of liberty of children, including the consideration of the child's best interests, the need to promote successful reintegration of children, and the recognition of the harm caused by deprivation of liberty.

File

Stories Less Told: Parenting Strengths and Family-of-Origin Experiences amongst Parents Involved with Child Protective Services

Hana Yoo, Kelsey Abiera - The British Journal of Social Work

Based on semi-structured interviews with parents involved with child protective services (CPS), this study explored these parents’ self-identified parenting strengths in light of their family-of-origin experiences.

Recognising the caring capabilities of birth families of removed children: Towards a critical policy agenda

Karen Healy - Critical Social Policy

In this article, the authors analyse how interventions of the State may undermine, rather than activate, the caring capabilities of vulnerable families across the life course, drawing on examples from Australia, England and the USA.

Care Leavers and Children’s Services: Exploring the Utility of Communities of Practice in Theorising Transition

Lynda Turner, Barry Percy-Smith - The British Journal of Social Work

This article considers the application of Communities of Practice theory to understand transition into, through and out of care, arguing that a sense of belonging and identity emerges from participation in supportive communities. The authors consider the influence of community on looked after children and care leavers’ sense of identity, engagement and well-being in transition.

Perspectives on kinship care, foster care and adoption in Scotland. Insights for policymakers and practitioners

Helen Whincup - University of Stirling

Part of the 'Permanently Progressing? Building secure futures for children in Scotland' study, this briefing draws upon the voices of children, carers and adoptive parents in Scotland, offering perspectives on kinship care, foster care and adoption.

File

Foster Youth’s Educational Challenges and Supports: Perspectives of Teachers, Foster Parents, and Former Foster Youth

April M. Moyer & Abbie E. Goldberg - Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal

The current study employed thematic analysis to explore Massachusetts foster youth’s academic challenges and supports through interviews with teachers, foster parents, former foster youth, and three individuals who were both teachers and foster parents.

Economic Strengthening and Keeping Children in Family Care: Uganda Learning Event Compiled Notes and Presentations

ASPIRES Family Care

This report compiles presentations and notes from the Accelerating Strategies for Practical Innovation & Research in Economic Strengthening (ASPIRES) Family Care Uganda Learning Event, Economic Strengthening and Keeping Children in Family Care, held May 29-30, 2018.

File

Global study on children deprived of liberty

Manfred Nowak, Independent Expert leading the global study on children deprived of liberty

The present report summarizes the detailed findings of the global study on children deprived of liberty, the first scientific attempt, on the basis of global data, to comprehend the magnitude of the situation of children deprived of liberty, its possible justifications and root causes, as well as conditions of detention and their harmful impact on the health and development of children.

File

2019 Annual report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children

Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children

This report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children highlights action taken at national and regional levels towards realizing the right of every child to protection from violence.

File

Migration and absent fathers: Impacts on the mental health of left-behind family members in Thailand

Benjamas Penboon, Aree Jampaklay, Patama Vapattanawong, Zachary Zimmer - Asian and Pacific Migration Journal

This paper examines whether children and main caregivers of overseas migrant fathers have fewer or more mental health symptoms compared to those of non-migrant fathers.

Institutionalised criminalisation : black and minority ethnic children and looked after children in the youth justice system in England and Wales

Hunter, K. E. - University of Liverpool

This thesis is concerned with the overrepresentation of black and minority ethnic (BME) children and looked after children, in the youth justice system in general and the secure state in particular, in England and Wales.

Promoting mental health in out of home care in Australia

Katherine Monson, Kristen Moeller-Saxone, Cathy Humphreys, Carol Harvey, Helen Herrman - Health Promotion International

This qualitative study explored perspectives from young people with experience of OoHC in Melbourne, Australia regarding the promotion of mental health in OoHC. The study informed the subsequent development of a system-level intervention to support workers and carers in OoHC and evaluation of its implementation, the Ripple study.

Life satisfaction and social anxiety among left‐behind children in rural China: The mediating role of loneliness

Lei Wang & Jun Yao - Journal of Community Psychology

This study examined the mediating effects of loneliness in the relationship between social anxiety and life satisfaction. Four hundred and forty two left‐behind children in rural China, who completed the Social Anxiety Subscale, UCLA Loneliness Scale, and Satisfaction with Life Scale, participated in the study.

Examining the Feasibility of Using Home Visiting Models to Support Home-Based Child Care Providers

Chrishana M. Lloyd, Maggie Kane, Deborah Seok, Claudia Vega - Child Trends

This report examines home visiting models and curricula, state- and federal-level policies related to early care and education and home visiting, funding streams to support early care and education and home visiting, and the perspectives of home-based child care (HBCC) providers and parents in order to explore the potential for scaling up this model of professional development for HBCC providers in the United States.

File

The Children Left Behind

Karen Gordon - Conflict and Forced Migration

In this article, the stories of children left-behind by parental migration in Central America and Mexico are conveyed in their own words detailing how vulnerable they felt when abandoned, confused, and at times, rejected after finally connecting with their long-lost families.

Role of the Ombudsman for Children in Protection of the Rights of Children Who Are Raised in Adoptive Families

Tuzova O. N. & Stepanova D. N. - Psychology and Law

The aim of this article is to develop proposals for the organization of a legal and regulatory framework in Russia, in accordance with the social and psychological needs of guardianship families and to identify the possibilities of the Ombudsman for the Rights of the Child to protect the rights of minors raised in guardianship families.

Nightmares and flashbacks: The impact of commercial sexual exploitation of children among female adolescents placed in residential care

Nadine Lanctôt, Joan A. Reid, Catherine Laurier - Child Abuse & Neglect

This study aimed to assess differences in the level of post-traumatic symptoms reported by those who experienced commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) during adolescence and those who did not.

Association of Foster Care and its Duration with Clinical Symptoms and Impairment: Foster Care versus Non-Foster Care Comparisons with Spanish Children

Ignasi Navarro-Soria, Mateu Servera, G. Leonard Burns - Journal of Child and Family Studies

The objective of this study was to determine if Spanish foster care children and Spanish non-foster children differ on sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT), ADHD-inattention (IN), ADHD-hyperactivity/impulsivity (HI), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), limited prosocial emotions (LPE), anxiety, depression, social and academic impairment measures and if the duration of foster care predicts a reduction in symptom and impairment differences between foster and non-foster care children.

File

Improving Outcomes for Families Affected by Substance Use Disorders: What Child Welfare, Direct Service Providers, and Courts Need to Know

Tina Willauer and Kim Coe - National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare

This presentation was given at the National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington, DC in April 2019. The presentation outlines data on the prevalence of parental substance abuse as a contributing factor for child removal in the US and highlights practices that work for families with substance abuse disorders.

File

“I’m in two minds about it” : decision variability in child protection

Dr. Emily Keddell & Dr. Ian Hyslop - University of Otago

Decisions in the child protection context take place in a complex environment influenced by individual decision-makers, institutional resources and practices, demographic inequalities, and family responses. This report describes some of these factors as reported by practitioners in the child protection context in Aotearoa New Zealand, providing an insight into the experiences and perceptions of front-line practitioners.

File

Pathways in a Forest: Indigenous Guidance on Prevention-Based Child Welfare

West Coast LEAF

This report explores the experiences of 64 Indigenous parents who have had engagement with the child welfare system in Canada. Their stories and expertise provide a wealth of knowledge about the strengths and weaknesses of current prevention-based efforts and programs. Their experiences demonstrate that, despite the Ministry for Children and Family Development’s (MCFD) emphasis on improving prevention-based services for Indigenous families, long-standing apprehension-focused practices continue to permeate the system.

File