o Advantages
§ Informal kinship care offers significant benefits. The arrangement may prevent the future occurrence of abuse or neglect. Moreover, the arrangement offers a means of preventing court intervention based on child safety concerns, avoids formal placement of children in the child welfare system, and permits children to remain with family members, thereby preserving familial relationships. (Freundlich, Morris, & Hernandez, 2003)
§ Fewer traumas to the child facing separation from his or her parents, the preservation of the extended family, a greater likelihood of being placed with siblings, and less stigma associated with being a child in foster care. Children cared for by relatives account for nearly one-quarter of the entire foster care population. (Freundlich, Morris, & Hernandez, 2003)
§ Permanency
· When children in out-of-home care cannot be safely returned home to their parents, child welfare professionals first look to relatives (also known as kin) to provide permanency for them. Relatives may adopt the children, assume legal guardianship, or accept a transfer of custody. All three options provide a permanent legal family for the children and support their exit from foster care and State custody. Kinship families caring for children often need an array of services to support their efforts. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2011)
o Disadvantages
§ there often are no trainings or assessments, concern of being deprived of adults in their early adulthood due to a majority of kinship careers being over 60 (raised by their grandparents), often economically disadvantaged, and kinship careers are often less educated, which affects the academic stimulation in children (Palacios and Jimenez, 2009)
§ Despite the lack of definite support from the data of kinship care, there is a general acceptance and preference for it. “So, what do our overall findings tell us about kinship care? They suggest that kinship care may be less traumatic for a child than out-of-home placement with persons unknown to them. They also demonstrate that, despite the lack of resources in many kinship homes, children are just as well off in kinship care as they are in foster care. Indeed, if kinship homes were given more resources, children in these placements might flourish at a greater level than those in foster care.” (Jordan Institute for Families, 1996)
