Kinship and network: A cognitive model of interaction

This research utilizes aspects of informants' cognition of their kinship relations to generate a hypothetical model of mobilizations of kinsmen for the accomplishment of tasks. Informants produced rankings of the relative strengths of expected norm fulfillment with respect to various kinsmen. These rankings were then scaled. The correlations among the resulting scales were factor analyzed to reveal clusters of kinsmen. These clusters reflect general levels of normative expectation of the kinsmen and, thus, their relative likelihood of recruitment in mobilizations.     

Evaluating Services for Kinship Care Families: A Systematic Review

Despite their needs, kinship care families receive less support and fewer resources than other foster care families. This study systematically reviews thirteen studies that evaluated services and programs for kinship caregivers and children. Studies evaluating the effectiveness of the Kinship Navigator Program, financial assistance, support services, and training/educational programs were identified and reviewed. The Levels of Evidence-Based Intervention Effectiveness (LEBIE) scale was used to evaluate the research designs. The findings indicate that although positive results are shown for enhanced well-being and permanency outcomes of children and kinship caregivers, the rigor of the research designs are low, making it difficult to draw any firm conclusions about the effectiveness of these programs. Recommendations for child welfare practice and future research include the need to develop services for informal caregivers and particular racial/ethnic groups. In addition, more rigorous research designs and qualitative research should be conducted to support the effectiveness or social validity of the services and to inform evidence-based practice.     

Kinship liaisons: A peer-to-peer approach to supporting kinship caregivers

Relative caregivers are invaluable to the child welfare system. Although most states have a preference for relative placement, the support and assistance provided to relatives during and beyond the initial child placement period are inadequate. Through a U.S. Children's Bureau System of Care Demonstration project, a peer-to-peer approach (based in social cognitive theory) which paired a new relative caregiver (n = 74) with a full-time, paid kinship liaison (a current or former relative caregiver) was studied. Findings show that kinship liaisons are extremely helpful to caregivers and reveal 27 support categories that caregivers find most useful. One of the most significant services (i.e., information and referral) provided by the liaisons increased caregivers' knowledge of accessing available services and the permanency process. Data results show significant increases in caregivers' coping abilities and willingness to become a permanent resource for the children in their care. Policy and practice insights are provided.     

华南的村治与宗族——一个功能主义的分析路径

1978年改革开放之后,宗族组织在全国各地快速复兴,而且,随着1990年代以后村民自治的发展,农村基层民主组织与宗族组织之间的互动已成为村庄治理过程中不可回避的课题。在这个背景下,本文试图回答下面三个问题:(1)宗族组织在中国复兴的原因何在?(2)在当代中国的农村社区,宗族组织的存在,如何影响村庄民主的发展?(3)在一个村庄社区内,宗族与民主之间的互动类型,会导致什么样的治理绩效差异?实证分析的结果发现:(1)在华南农村,宗族组织的兴起,是在正式组织功能缺失的情况下,村民对于公共物品需求的一个替代性组织选择。(2)从表面上看,宗族组织并不会影响民主在形式上的推广;但是,宗族组织一旦发展之后,会限制基层民主的实质内涵。(3)宗族与民主在公共物品提供方面,并没有本质的差异。但是只有同时存在宗族与民主的村庄,才具有更高的治理绩效。     

Kinship care: Two case management models

Children in the care and custody of the state are increasingly placed with kin rather than in unrelated foster homes. Current estimates suggest that 400,000 children are in kinship care arrangements, with a projected increase to over a half million by 1995 (Center for the Study of Social Policy, 1990). This article provides an overview of the trend toward increasing use of kinship care for foster children and the reasons for this development. It then presents the case management models currently used in kinship care cases by two large public child welfare agencies, and it concludes with discussion of these models and their implications.     

Kinship care: Two case management models

Children in the care and custody of the state are increasingly placed with kin rather than in unrelated foster homes. Current estimates suggest that 400,000 children are in kinship care arrangements, with a projected increase to over a half million by 1995 (Center for the Study of Social Policy, 1990). This article provides an overview of the trend toward increasing use of kinship care for foster children and the reasons for this development. It then presents the case management models currently used in kinship care cases by two large public child welfare agencies, and it concludes with discussion of these models and their implications.     

Kinship care: an evolving service delivery option

It has been eight years since the Children and Youth Services Review first special issue on kinship care. That issue was prompted by the large increase in kinship care placements that occurred in the mid-to-later 1980s and the developing research base documenting the relatively new and often controversial practice. Eight years later, state child welfare agencies continue to rely significantly on kin to act as foster parents. Moreover, federal and state policies have added legitimacy and support for kinship care placements. However, when and how kin should be used as foster parents remains an issue of immense debate. This volume adds more fuel to the fire, providing much needed research to inform the debate, yet at the same time raising more questions than it answers.     

Kinship Reconsidered: Research on a Neglected Topic

This article reviews the recent history of kinship research, noting the relative neglect of the topic in recent decades. The lack of scholarly and empirical work on kinship has been hampered by both the absence of survey and qualitative research on contemporary kinship practices. The author focuses on what is known and not known about how individual put into practice kinship in the standard, nuclear form of the family. There is surprising in attention to the ceremonial family and, little is know about how families draw boundaries and construct kinship on ritual occasions in the literature. The author concludes by suggesting research strategies for examining both how kinship is constructed and practiced in the United States and in other advanced economies.     

Kinship structure and suicide: a theoretical link

L'état du mariage diminuent le risque q'uon se suicide; spécialment c 'est vrai avec les hommes. Nous proposons que la rôle particuliere des femmes en maintenant la sociabilité et les obligations avec les parents explique cet fait. Cette explication s' accorde avec les théories de la parenté et du suicide.
La proportion du suicide q'uest enregistrée dans toute la Canada pendant les années 1951,1956,1961,1966, et 1971 révélent cet effet être la même chose durant tous les années. Les comparisons préliminaire entre des Canadiens anglais et français et entre des societées matrilinéal et patrilinéal s' accordent aussi avec les théories que nous présen-tons ici.
Marriage lowers the risk of suicide for men more than it does for women. It is proposed that the particular role of women in maintaining both normative and interactive integration of kinship systems on behalf of men best accounts for this particular finding. Such an explanation is compatible with existing theories of both kinship and suicide.
Rates of reported suicide for all Canada for the years 1951,1956,1961,1966, and 1971 were used to show that the extra protection of men is consistent through time, and the theoretical explanation offered was shown to receive support from a preliminary comparison of suicide rates in English and French Canada, in which kinship structure differs, as well as from suicide rates in matrilineal and patrilineal societies.     

Kinship care in Australia

Kinship care is the fastest growing form of out‐of‐home care placement in Australia. It is now a more common form of placement than foster care in some Australian states and is the most common form of placement for Indigenous children nationally. This paper reviews national data and reports ?ndings from a state (New South Wales) study of the experience of kinship carers, children and workers. Relative carers, children and child welfare caseworkers were found to identify psychological bene?ts, family obligation and criticism of other forms of care as reasons for preferring kinship care. Legislation and policy, particularly the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle, are also identi?ed as factors contributing to the rise in kinship care. Concern for the high levels of stress among carers and the low levels of monitoring of children's safety and well‐being are discussed and a stronger policy and practice response from government agencies is proposed. Indications of new policy and programme responses are demonstrated by several recent initiatives at state and national levels. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Using Concept Mapping to Develop a Statewide Kinship Care Coalition: A Case Study

Increasingly, community coalitions are being developed to address a myriad of social challenges. However, documented research efforts related to planning processes associated with coalition formation are few. This case-study documents the use of concept mapping (CM) to d elineate a conceptual framework for developing a statewide kinship care coalition in one southeastern state. CM is a mixed-method research approach that analyzes qualitative data via nonmetric multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analyses. After a review of relevant literature, this article discusses CM processes associated with this endeavor and examines implications for future use of CM for coalition formation and development.     

The Father as an Idea: A Challenge to Kinship Boundaries by Single Mothers

In separating parenthood from partnership, women have created new family forms in which men may be involved but not as traditional fathers. Through in‐depth interviews with single middle‐class women, I compare families created with anonymous donors to those created with known donors. In the former cases, mothers craft imagined fathers as their children become “looking glasses” into the men they will probably never meet. These children must rely on the mothers’ imagination to create a sense of the fathers’ view of them. While known donors are not “dads” either, the mothers help these children imagine positive fathers, often through more concrete, personal knowledge, and these fathers often know the children from a distance. In an interesting manner, although children may be created without men as physically present “dads,” women contextualize the donors that allowed them to become mothers through acknowledging the social ways that blood kinship creates families. They ultimately reaffirm certain kinds of kinship rather than challenge them.     

Carceral Kinship: Future Families of the Late Leviathan

This essay examines the monstrous first as a figure haunting Western legal history, stripped of rights and often merging with the animal, and second, as a divergent sociality borne of emergencies, crises, and faultlines of late liberal governmentality. In particular I ask how the figure of the pathological and violent gang member structures debates about the US‐Mexico border crosser, and the limits of humanity before the law. The essay moves from a genealogy of the gang member in Honduras, to the refugee asylum seeker of 2018, to ask what forms of difference‐making, in the form of new monstrosities, might inform new notions of kinship and solidarity amid anthropocenic futures.     

Asexuality: A Multidimensional Approach

While lack of sexual attraction, lack of sexual behavior, and self-identification as asexual have been used as criteria to define asexuality, it is not known how much they overlap in describing the same group of people. This study aimed to assess how many individuals could be identified as asexual based on each of these criteria and on combinations of these criteria. Participants were recruited through the Asexuality Visibility and Education Network, social media, and posts on several health- and lifestyle-related websites. In total, 566 participants between 18 and 72 years old (M = 27.86, SD = 10.53) completed an online survey (24% male, 68.9% female, 7.1% “other”). Based on self-identification or lack of sexual attraction, 71.3% and 69.2%, respectively, of participants were categorized as asexual, while based on lack of sexual behavior only 48.5% were categorized as asexual. Gender differences were found only for those participants who indicated that they did not experience sexual attraction, with more women (72.8%) than men (58.8%) indicating a lack of sexual attraction. Given that self-identification as asexual implies familiarity with the term asexual, we argue for the use of lack of sexual attraction as the primary criterion to define asexuality.     

Kinship care and service utilization: A review of predisposing,enabling, and need factors

Research has shown that relative caregivers are less likely to use formal supports and services than non-relative foster parents. However, less is known about factors influencing kinship caregivers' help-seeking behaviors and service use. This systematic review identified research studies examining factors associated with service use among kinship caregivers using key search terms in five computerized bibliographic databases and four journals. The search identified 337 potentially relevant studies. After screening and study eligibility assessments, a final sample of 13 studies was reviewed. Findings suggested that although children and their kinship caregivers were clearly in need of services, service use was low. Results suggested a need for more rigorous research designs and that the following factors may influence service use: child behavioral problems, caregiver mental health status, resources, provider characteristics, caregiver perceived need, and social support. More research examining help-seeking behaviors, perceptions of formal services, and effectiveness of kinship caregiver services in relation to child outcomes is needed to improve the wellbeing of kinship families in the child welfare system.     

Achieving Permanence in Foster Care for Young Children: A Comparison of Kinship and Non-Kinship Placements

ABSTRACT

A number of child welfare policies have reinforced the use of kinship care as the most preferred placement for foster children, reflecting the philosophy that maintaining children within their own extended family system contributes to their stability and well-being. Given the growing utilization and legislative emphasis on kinship care along with the push for an immediate implementation of permanency plans for children in foster care, this study examines how the permanency goal under the 1997 Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) is being implemented and achieved. The reunification and permanency placement (adoption or legal guardianship) outcomes of children in relative and non-relative care are analyzed, focusing on the experiences of young children. Based on public child welfare agency data from 2000 to 2003, child, case, and placement variables are explored to identify which set of factors best explains case outcomes. The present study identifies the total length of foster placement (kinship and non-kinship), the length of family maintenance services, and the number of placement changes as the most important variables in determining family reunification and permanent placement (legal guardianship and adoption) outcomes for young children.