Kinship Care in a Changing Society: Health and Well-Being of Children and Families
A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 5 November 2026 | Viewed by 4
Special Issue Editors
Interests: child welfare; child well-being; kinship care; children and family
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: child welfare; kinship care; children and family services and policies; well-being of racial/ethnic minorities and immigrants; program evaluation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: foster care and kinship care; child abuse and neglect; child mental and behavioral health; and grandparents raising grandchildren
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue of Healthcare on “Kinship Care in a Changing Society: Health and Well-Being of Children and Families.”
Kinship care often occurs when children are raised by relatives or someone close to the family (i.e., fictive kin) after separation from their parents for various reasons, such as child maltreatment, domestic violence, substance use, mental health issues, and incarceration. Whether formally involved in the child welfare system or arranged informally, kinship families face challenges driven by sudden changes, including economic hardship, caregiver aging, complex trauma and fragmented services. Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence may also bring new opportunities and challenges to kinship families. Although kinship care has received growing recognition, the health and well-being of children and families in kinship care remain under-researched and under-resourced. This Special Issue addresses this urgent research gap and offers a timely platform to explore how kinship care can better support child and family health and well-being in this constantly changing societal context.
This Special Issue aims to advance interdisciplinary research and evidence-based dialog on how kinship care contributes to child and family health and overall well-being, especially in the context of today’s shifting social, economic, and policy landscapes. We welcome original research, systematic reviews, and policy analyses on topics such as child health and development, caregiver well-being, intergenerational dynamics, health equity, service access and utilization, innovative interventions and service models, and lived experiences of children and families in kinship care. All methodological approaches are encouraged.
We look forward to your contributions.
Dr. Qi Wu
Dr. Eun Koh
Dr. Yanfeng Xu
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- kinship care
- child health
- child well-being
- caregiver health
- caregiver well-being
- social change
- intergenerational caregiving
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