Family Contact for Children in Kinship Care: A Literature Review

Abstract

Kinship care has been growing rapidly across the English-speaking world over the last decade. While family contact is an identified right of children removed from their families and maintains important relationships, contact with parents where there has been child abuse and neglect remains contentious. The evidence base in relation to family contact in kinship care is limited. Therefore, this article presents the current state of knowledge in the form of a narrative review of qualitative and quantitative research. Contradictory theoretical orientations are outlined together with the limits they impose on the development and application of knowledge. While the complexity of parental contact is confirmed, a consistent finding is that kinship care provides children with strong family networks including sustained relationships with parents, siblings, and extended family, and maintenance of children's culture and identity. Suggestions for the development of the research agenda are made, together with implications for policy and practice.

Contact between birth parents and children in kinship care in a sample from Spain

“…The absence of professional supervision could be linked to the dissatisfaction expressed by a high percentage of the participants when they assessed contact quality. This association has been found in previous studies, especially when contacts took place in the caregiver's homes where there is family conflict (Bernedo ; Jiménez & Palacios ; Kiraly & Humphreys ; López & Del Valle ; Morrison et al . ; Salas et al .…”

“…Many authors underscore the difficulties of kinship care deriving from the relationship between the caregivers and the children's parents, and conflict regarding contact (Fuentes & Bernedo ; Hunt et al . ; Kiraly & Humphreys ; Larkins et al . ; López & Del Valle ; Morrison et al .…”

“…Foster children and adolescents often display psychological and behaviour problems Van Holen et al 2015), and more specifically, this also occurs in kinship foster children (Bernedo 2004;Jiménez & Palacios 2008). Many authors underscore the difficulties of kinship care deriving from the relationship between the caregivers and the children's parents, and conflict regarding contact Hunt et al 2010;Kiraly & Humphreys 2013;Larkins et al 2013;López & Del Valle 2016;Morrison et al 2011;Vanschoonlandt et al 2012).…”

“…Several studies have analysed the possible relationship between contact and the probability of family reunification (Sen & Broadhurst 2011;Wilson & Sinclair 2004). Research also indicates that foster children with regular, structured and frequent contact with their parents have a greater probability of returning home, especially when contact is with their mother (Kiraly & Humphreys 2013;León 2012).…”

Systematic Reviews: A Social Work Perspective

“…This may well be changing as Australian Social Work, which arguably acts as a barometer of social work research in Australia, has published a handful of reviews since 2011 described by the authors as systematic (Abdelkerim & Grace, 2012;Kiraly & Humphreys, 2013;O'Neal, Jackson, & McDermott, 2014;Skouteris et al, 2011;Trevor & Boddy, 2013). However, while the authors of each of these reviews have included mention of search criteria, what is reported and how it has been reported has varied considerably, and it is likely that some of these articles would not have met the guidelines for reporting reviews now being required by some social work journals (Montgomery et al, 2013).…”