This paper describes the use of instrumental-variables (IV) to estimate causal effects of foster care on long- and short-term outcomes. This estimation strategy provides a tool to evaluate what are known as “natural experiments”: settings that mimic randomization usually associated with a...

Within social services, an increasingly significant movement supports giving “voice” to children and youth, enabling them to express their views and to have those views taken into account in matters that affect them. In this article, the author draws from narratives of young people who grew...

Prior research suggests that for youth in the general population, involvement in activities improves academic, health and social outcomes, but the impact of these activities on youth in out-of-home care is unknown. This study examines, among youth in foster, formal kinship, and residential care,...

To what extent substitute long term care modifies intergenerational transmission of substance abuse has rarely been investigated. Using register data, we followed a national cohort born 1973–1985 consisting of 1012 national adoptees, 2408 former children from long term foster care, 348/846...

Examining the prevalence of externalizing problems, their predictors and mental health service use for these problems by foster children and foster parents in a representative group of foster children aged 3 to 12 in Flanders.

This article investigates sibling contact among Swedish fostered children in foster and residential care. The study also examines a potential link between sibling contact and psychosomatic status. Highly structured interviews were conducted with 240 young people (13–18years) in out of home...

Public policies regarding children in care systems have varied widely throughout history and within countries around the world. At the present time, an important number of children live without parental care and their needs and rights must be addressed by the State within which they reside....

Kinship care represents 46% of all out-of-home care placements in Spain and 80% of all foster care placements. Therefore, the role of fostering relatives, most of whom (about 70%) are grandparents, is particularly relevant in the Spanish child care system.

During the child's first few years, it's of fundamental importance the presence of a strong emotional base as long as it creates the possibility to open themselves to physical and social world with confidence, and as it acts as a facilitator of cognitive development. For this reason, if the...

Placement stability is important for children to find permanent families, and for social, emotional and educational development of children. This study used the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being (NSCAW, long term foster care general sample) data set to examine foster child and...