Children's Paths to Informal Kinship Care: Experience in Formal Systems

Background and Purpose

Kinship care has been increasingly utilized as an alternative out-of-home placement option.  While much attention has been paid to children in kinship foster care, less is known about those in informal kinship care. Their placement is either informally or voluntarily arranged, thus these children and their caregivers are often not present on official records. A few available studies do indicate that children in informal kinship care have risk factors similar to those in kinship and non-kinship foster care. The goals of this mixed methods study is to examine: 1) the prevalence and type of children’s prior involvement in the child welfare system; 2) the contexts of placement with kin; and 3) kin caregivers’ experience with navigating child welfare services.

Methods

The study utilizes three different data sources. First, survey data were collected from 303 primary caregivers. The survey data include household and caregiver information and the reasons for children’s “informal” placement. The second comes from the state administrative child welfare database including any child welfare records for the 455 children in the study. The qualitative data from 4 caregiver focus groups provide another source. The survey data were merged with the child welfare administrative records. We used descriptive and bivariate analyses to describe profiles of caregivers and children as well as to explore the associations between caregiver socio economic characteristics. Using GEE modeling, we examined the child welfare history and the reasons for placement. The qualitative data were transcribed and were coded for a priori as well as emerging themes.

 

Results

Sixty-nine percent of the 303 caregivers in our sample were grandparents while the rest consisted of other kin. Most of the caregivers had 1 child in their care, but 35% had more than 2 children. Ages of children in care ranged from 0 (infant) to 20.  Results indicated that 79% of the children in the study had at least one record of a child protective service (CPS) investigation prior to current placement with kin. We found 55% of the caregivers reported that child welfare involvement was a reason why the child could no longer stay with the mother. Some caregivers reported private arrangements to avoid the involvement of child welfare services while others reported home visits and arrangement by child welfare workers for out of home care placement. However, few were satisfied with the child welfare system and most expressed challenges in caring for children with little support. 

Implications

Our findings indicate that while the children were living in “informal” kinship care, the majority came to live with kin after being involved in the child welfare system. Kinship caregivers, especially grandparents, were pressured to provide care to these children without services and financial assistance. This “informal” arrangement had become permanent and they were largely forgotten by the formal systems. Child welfare practice needs to provide case management services. Comprehensive policies to recognize and better serve the children between the systems are needed.