To date, much of the research on foster dependence hinges on the validity of the reasons for entry into the foster care system. Yet, no one has tested these data. Since these reasons for entry help to assess individual differences in foster care children, the purpose of this study is to more closely examine these reasons. Using data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis Reporting System, w...

Adoption is known to promote cognitive and emotional development in children from foster care, but policy debates remain regarding whether children adopted by gay and lesbian parents can achieve these positive outcomes. This study compared the cognitive development and behavior problems at 2, 12, and 24 months postplacement of 82 high-risk children adopted from foster care in heterosexual and g...

Objective—To examine the influence of kinship care on behavioral problems after 18 and 36 months in out-of-home care. Growth in placement of children with kin has occurred despite conflicting evidence regarding its benefits compared to foster care. Design—Prospective cohort study Setting—National Survey of Child & Adolescent Well-Being, October, 1999-March, 2004 Participants—1,309 children ente...

The potential to foster successfully starts with developing and supporting competency in 12 domains: providing a safe and secure environment, providing a nurturing environment, promoting educational attainment and success, meeting physical and mental healthcare needs, promoting social and emotional development, supporting diversity and children's cultural needs, supporting permanency planning, ...

OBJECTIVE To compare rates of avoidable mortality in adolescence in child welfare recipients and intercountry adoptees with the general population. DESIGN A register study of the entire national cohort of 989 871 Swedish residents born 1973-82 in the national census of 1990. Multivariate Cox analyses of proportional hazards were used to analyse avoidable deaths between 13 to 27 years of age d...

The battered child syndrome consists of a constellation of signs that may be either apparent or covert. Radiographic documentation of unexplained or difficult-to-detect fractures is an important means of establishing a basis for legal intervention in child abuse. One hundred ten children were evaluated with either radiographic surveys or bone scans, and 50 children had both roentgenograms and b...

a r t i c l e i n f o Despite the prominence of attachment theory in international foster care literature and the importance of attachment relationships in successful foster care, attachment theory and practices do not feature prominently in South African foster care research. Against this backdrop, we interviewed twenty South African social workers' about their knowledge of attachment theory a...