Kinship Families' Experiences Navigating the COVID-19 Pandemic: Benefits, Challenges, and Adaptability

Kinship caregivers, comprising those connected to a child biologically, legally, and/or fictively, provide care through voluntary, public, private, informal or formal arrangements, usually resulting from birth parents' illness, incarceration, absenteeism, or inability to keep children safe and meet their needs. In adapting their life to care for a child full-time, kinship caregivers generally face increased role strain, social isolation, material stress, multi-system involvement, and decreased well-being. Yet there are many strengths to kinship care, as children raised by kin generally experience better permanency, safety, well-being, and academic outcomes than children in foster care (Dorval, 2020; Winokur et al., 2018). In the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States experienced a nationwide lockdown with schools closing and services delayed or moved completely remote. Caregivers quickly had to adapt to drastic changes including health precautions, schooling from home, employment changes, coordinating remote services, with policies changing as the pandemic progressed. Faced with isolation and uncertainty, increased rates of stress and anxiety for children and adults have been reported (Blackwell et al., 2022; Fitzpatrick et al., 2021; Grassman-Pines et al., 2020). Kinship families were especially vulnerable to the effects of the pandemic because of their increased likelihood of multi-system service involvement, financial stress, role stresses and strains, child health needs, and COVID-19 risk factors for caregivers (Beal et al., 2022; Cosby et al., 2020). These factors also increase children's vulnerability to lingering in the child welfare system, yet the field is virtually bereft of policy, programmatic, and research knowledge about strategies to better protect children and support caregivers. This roundtable will triangulate the perspectives of caregivers, professionals, and researchers to consider: (1) the complex impact of the COVID-19 pandemic for kinship families throughout its different phases; (2) caregivers' adaptability in facing challenges related to schooling from home and changes in service delivery due to COVID-19 precautions; (3) long-term implications of the pandemic for kinship families. We will facilitate a conversation about the complex impact of COVID-19 on kinship families. A researcher, who has conducted focus groups on this topic, will describe the limited knowledge base about how kinship families fared during the pandemic, given the socioeconomic challenges that many of them face, and share the experiences of caregivers from a qualitative study. Then, a researcher and facilitator of online support groups for kinship caregivers will share her own experience with building and delivering a remote service for kinship families, including the benefits and challenges of virtual services. Two kinship caregivers with diverse backgrounds will share the impact COVID-19 had on their family and well-being including remote schooling, access to services, family health and well-being, and the continued impact of the pandemic. The goal for this session is to have an open and honest dialogue about the broad impact of COVID-19 pandemic for kinship families, including family well-being, education, service delivery, caregiver capacity, and continuing effects, with both providers' and caregivers' perspectives represented. We will discuss implications for practice, policy, and research on supporting this vulnerable population that are imperative to child well-being.