June 1, 2008

Kinship Care and Lessened Child Behavior Problems: Possible Meanings and Implications

This article written by Richard Barth comments on a study that compared outcomes for children in kinship care with those not in kinship care and found a protective effect in the children in kinship care. It cautions against drawing general conclusions about the study and addresses some of the problems with the methodology used. The recommendations of the study to expand the resources given to kinship providers with a national kinship guardianship program and to endeavor to more expeditiously notify kin and place children into kinship care are underscored. 5 references.