Kinship Care and Foster Care: A Comparison of Characteristics and Outcomes

The increase in children entering foster care, together with a range of other political, economic, and social factors, has helped fuel the newest phenomenon in the child welfare system–a substantial proportion of children in formal kinship care. Kinship care is defined as out-of-home placement with...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Families in society 1997-09, Vol.78 (5), p.480-488
Main Authors: Scannapieco, Maria, Hegar, Rebecca L., McAlpine, Catherine
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Baltimore, Maryland
Characteristics
Child care
Child welfare
Child Welfare Services
Children
Foster Care
Foster Children
Kinship
Kinship foster care
Maryland
Outcomes
Surrogate Parents
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The increase in children entering foster care, together with a range of other political, economic, and social factors, has helped fuel the newest phenomenon in the child welfare system–a substantial proportion of children in formal kinship care. Kinship care is defined as out-of-home placement with relatives of children who are in the custody of state and local child welfare agencies. The authors present a review of previous research and report on a study that examined differences and similarities between kinship and traditional foster care in Baltimore County, Maryland, a suburban county that surrounds the city of Baltimore. This study supports many earlier conclusions concerning kinship care, such as children remain in care longer, caregivers are primarily African American, and services provided by kin are less extensive than those provided by traditional foster parents.
ISSN:1044-3894
1945-1350
DOI:10.1606/1044-3894.817