All children do best when they live in safe, stable, and nurturing families, yet far too many children lack this fundamental foundation. Every year, millions of children are abused or neglected—close to 300,000 so egregiously that they are removed from their homes by the state and placed in foster care. For too many of these children, foster care is no safe haven. Instead, the children drift fr...

PURPOSE Making good consumer decisions requires having good information. This study compared long-term-care recommendations among various types of health professionals. DESIGN AND METHODS We gave randomly varied scenarios to a convenience national sample of 211 professionals from varying disciplines and work locations. For each scenario, we asked the professional to recommend the appropriate ...

Title of Document: INTERNALIZING AND EXTERNALIZING BEHAVIORS OF ADOLESCENTS IN KINSHIP AND FOSTER CARE: FINDINGS FROM THE NATIONAL SURVEY OF CHILD AND ADOLESCENT WELL-BEING Sarah Kaye, Ph.D. Family Studies, 2007 Directed By: Sandra Hofferth, Ph.D. Professor Department of Family Studies The mission of the United States child welfare system is to promote safety, permanency and well-being for chil...

This study examined self-concept, resiliency, and social support in 107 children and youth placed in foster care in New York City. Of the children and youth, 55 were placed in family foster care, while the remaining 52 children and youth were placed in a kinship foster home. Significantly more of mothers of the kinship foster care children and youth were homeless or substance abusing, yet visit...

Amidst a crisis shortage of foster homes in the child welfare system, a number of innovative faith-based collaborations aimed at recruiting foster parents have recently emerged. It has been suggested that these collaborations offer a unique opportunity to recruit committed and altruistic parents as caregivers, providing much needed capacity to an overloaded child welfare system. This paper uses...

OBJECTIVE To examine the influence of kinship care on behavioral problems after 18 and 36 months in out-of-home care. Growth in placement of children with kin has occurred despite conflicting evidence regarding its benefits compared with foster care. DESIGN Prospective cohort study. SETTING National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, October 1999 to March 2004. PARTICIPANTS One th...