Foster Children do Better With Relatives

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Children who live with relatives because of mistreatment at home appear to have fewer behavioral problems than those placed in foster homes.

When children leave their homes, child welfare agencies place them in either foster care with unrelated caretakers, or in kinship care with relatives. In 2005, more than 2.5 million children were living in kinship care. This represents a number that has been increasing over the last 20 years, a result of efforts surrounding the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997.

Researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia analyzed results from the 1996 National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being. Findings show after three years, 32 percent of children placed in kinship care had behavioral problems, while 46 percent of those placed in foster care had behavioral problems.

In addition, researchers found children in kinship care were less likely to change homes frequently. “Placement stability is a common goal of child welfare systems and has consistently been shown to result in better outcomes for all children living in out-of-home care,” study authors write.

SOURCE: Journal of the American Medical Association, 2008;162:550-556