Understanding How Caregivers’ Financial Considerations Shape Whether Children in Kinship Care Will Transition to Formal Foster Care: An Epistemic Network Analysis Approach

Background and purpose: When reunification with birth parents or adoption is not viable, relatives step up to care for children placed into foster care. The financial burden associated with such responsibilities presents challenges for relatives. A key policy response to this burden is the Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program (KinGAP), which provides financial support for the care of youth in long-term foster care. However, several factors, including finance-related matters, account for whether relatives will take steps to meet required training, licensing, home safety assessment, and state-specific requirements for accessing KinGAP foster care payments. This study explores the complex and dual role financial considerations play in motivating or discouraging kin caregivers from assuming responsibility for children and youth in foster care.

Methods: This study gathered data on the experiences and perspectives of purposively sampled participants from 4 North Carolina counties: 9 in-depth interviews with caregivers and 5 focus group discussions with 25 social work trainers and administrators. After using thematic analysis to code the data, epistemic network analysis (ENA) was used to model the connections of codes within the data. The ENA produced several weighted networks of co-occurrences of participant experiences, along with network visualizations. Mann–Whitney U test was performed within the ENA framework to detect differences in caregivers' and social workers' perspectives.

Results: Both caregivers and social work participants shared that some kin caregivers are motivated to become foster parents or legal guardians in part because it provides an opportunity to alleviate the financial difficulties associated with child-rearing, particularly housing, transportation, and childcare costs. Both groups also highlighted how negative experiences and perceptions present significant barriers for relatives considering taking on the responsibility of caring for a child or sibling group in foster care, including the cost of meeting licensing requirements, family financial disputes, and the stigma associated with receiving foster care payments to care for family members. Overall, while there is consensus around the study participants’ perspectives (Singular Value Decomposition=42.5%), there are important nuances within the perspectives shared (Mean Resultant Length=14%). The ENA nonparametric t-test indicates no significant difference between social workers (Mdn=0.02) and caregivers (Mdn=-0.23, U=12.00, p=.07).

Conclusion and implication: The findings indicate that kin caregivers’ financial considerations are consequential in decisions related to the experiences of children in foster care. Policy efforts to support the costs associated with caring for vulnerable children are essential, as they are directly connected to providing children with safe and stable homes. However, given the evidence of the complex role of how financial-related matters motivate and inhibit KinGAP uptake, the policy discourse ought to be broadened to address the demotivating concerns. Concerns around regulatory, legal, and logistical barriers and the length of the licensing process can be addressed through policy adjustments, while concerns around stigma and lack of information can be addressed through KinGAP awareness campaigns and case management. These structural and administrative adjustments are crucial to improving the experiences of relatives for whom the financial burden of caregiving can be alleviated through enhanced access to KinGAP support.