Understanding informal kinship care: a critical narrative review of theory and research

Abstract

Many children are cared for on a full-time basis by relatives or adult friends, rather than their biological parents, and often in response to family crises. These kinship care arrangements have received increasing attention from the social science academy and social care professions. However, more information is needed on informal kinship care that is undertaken without official ratification by welfare agencies and often unsupported by the state. This article presents a comprehensive, narrative review of international, research literature on informal, kinship care to address this gap. Using systematic search and review protocols, it synthesises findings regarding: (i) the way that informal kinship care is defined and conceptualised; (ii) the needs of the carers and children; and (iii) ways of supporting this type of care. A number of prominent themes are highlighted including the lack of definitional clarity; the various adversities experienced by the families; and the requirement to understand the interface between formal and informal supports. Key messages are finally identified to inform the development of family friendly policies, interventions, and future research.

Disenfranchised: How Lower Income Mothers Navigated the Social Safety Net during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Participants also struggled when not all members of their household were eligible for assistance. Many lower-income households have family configurations that deviate from the standard North American family (Grady 2016; MacDonald, Hayes, and Houston 2018), as people double up or pool resources to get by, yet these families are often deliberately unacknowledged by social services (Meyer and Floyd 2020) and deliberately targeted through coercive policies that aim to uphold two-parent, cis-gendered, heteronormative family systems (Roberts 1997). Like several families in our study, Clarissa had informal custody of her grandson, in her case because his father, her son, was incarcerated.…”

The Adoption of Children with a Refugee Status: An Analysis of International Laws and Jurisprudence

“…It is estimated that around half of the kinship carers are grandparents of that child (MacDonald et al, 2018). But apart from that, many of them are taken care of by other close kin such as siblings, aunts, uncles, or family friends and neighbors that the child already knew (MacDonald et al, 2018;Messing, 2006;Woodruff et al, 2014). Different countries have different definitions and practices of kinship care.…”

What Is a Family and Why Does It Matter?

“…Our paper could be interpreted as offering a way of thinking about families in order to address a different set of theoretical questions around rights and responsibilities for care which have practical importance but which are necessarily pushed aside when the focus is on limited case of parents and their dependent children. For instance, the rights and responsibilities of 'extended' families, or of adults who are intimately involved in the care of children but not commonly considered their parents (e.g., MacDonald et al 2018;Powell 2018). As such, it can be read as extending previous debates on 'family values' to a wider set of social relationships that more accurately reflects the reality of family life.…”