Has the Child Welfare Profession Discovered Nepotistic Biases?

Abstract

A major trend in foster care in developed countries over the past quarter century has been a shift toward placing children with "kin" rather than with unrelated foster parents. This change in practice is widely backed by legislation and is routinely justified as being in the best interests of the child. It is tempting to interpret this change as indicating that the child welfare profession has belatedly discovered that human social sentiments are nepotistic in their design, such that kin tend to be the most nurturant alloparents. Arguably, however, the change in practice has been driven by demographic, economic, and political forces rather than by discovery of its benefits. More and better research is needed before we can be sure that children have actually benefitted.

Adoption Does Not Increase the Risk of Mortality among Taiwanese Girls in a Longitudinal Analysis

“…The particulars of this unusual system may make it a poor candidate for generalizing across systems of adoption; however, it does reinforce the context-specific nature of adoption practices and their outcomes. Thus, current policy in the United States and elsewhere, dictating a preference for placement of maltreated children among kin [5] may also benefit from considering the specific circumstances that favor adoption (e.g., death of a family member, infertility, etc.) in any given case.…”

“…Long considered paradoxical in evolutionary social science (i.e., because it involves expending effort on genetically unrelated individuals) [4], more recent theoretical and empirical treatments of delegated parenting have pointed to the benefits that may accrue as a result of adoption (e.g., [5–8]), including inclusive fitness benefits resulting from rearing adoptive children who are genetically related to their adoptive parents [6,9]. Adoption has been hypothesized to benefit adoptive parents, adopted children, and biological parents, depending on the specific circumstances surrounding adoption.…”

When not to have another baby: An evolutionary approach to low fertility

“…Following the publication of this study, the results were replicated in different settings all over the world. While these findings have clear policy implications, they have not always received adequate attention from policy-makers (Daly and Perry 2011). The insight that unrelated father figures are likely to cause more stress and conflict than genetic fathers has been shown to apply even in cases in which no abuse is involved.…”

Developing consistent and transparent kinship care policy and practice: State mandated, mediated, and independent care

“…Kinship care has been embraced by the child welfare profession (Daly & Perry, 2011) and has proliferated in public and private agencies, yet the policy and research communities have been slow to respond to the full distribution of caregiving opportunities. Consistent policies that reflect the variety of circumstances of kin caregivers and their children are needed to bring greater equity to these communities.…”