Kin-First Culture in Child Welfare: Trends, Opportunities, and Future Directions

Dear Colleagues,

The past 20 years have seen a seismic shift from congregate care placements to community-based care across the globe. Many jurisdictions have implemented a “kin-first culture” wherein kinship caregivers are prioritized for the placement of youth removed from the home for maltreatment. This shift is founded on comprehensive systematic reviews of kinship care from international contexts that show kinship care yields as good or better outcomes than non-relative foster care, particularly for placement stability, connectedness, and child well-being. However, important questions remain about how to best identify, support, and sustain kinship placements. This Special Issue centers on three key areas: (1) policies and system dynamics that enable kin-first practice; (2) conditions under which youth in kinship care and kinship caregivers are most likely to thrive; and (3) the cultural contexts that shape kinship care across diverse child welfare systems.

The pace of research on kinship care has lagged behind the changing practice and policy landscape, so the field does not fully know “what works” or “how it works.” There is a critical need for research that uplifts family and youth voices, examines culturally responsive practice, and addresses methodological challenges that limit causal inference in kinship-care research. To strengthen the international relevance of this research agenda, we encourage contributions that examine kinship care in Latin America, Africa, and the Asia–Pacific region; child welfare systems with strong community-based structures; and culturally grounded models of care or other locally rooted kinship traditions. We are hoping to bring together a diverse group of scholars to explore all facets of the kinship-care experience to inform current and future best practice in the field.

This Special Issue will supplement the existing literature by bringing together empirical evidence that reflects recent policy enhancements, implementation innovations, and expanded attention to the lived expertise of kinship-care alumni. Prior systematic reviews have established the general promise of kinship care, but important gaps remain regarding mechanisms of effectiveness, variation across populations and contexts, caregiver support needs, and long-term outcomes. This Special Issue seeks to move the field beyond broad comparisons of placement type and towards a more actionable understanding of the strategies and system conditions that promote equitable and effective kinship care. We welcome methodologically rigorous submissions using experimental designs, longitudinal analyses, participatory methods with families and youth, implementation evaluations, mixed-methods studies, systematic or scoping reviews, and international comparative research. Submissions should clearly identify how their findings advance one or more of the Special Issue’s central foci and contribute to a globally inclusive evidence base for kin-first policy and practice.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• The needs of kinship caregivers including mental health, financial support, and parenting education;
• Youth voices, centering the experiences and perspectives of kinship-care alumni;
• Permanency options for youth in kinship care such as relative-guardianship assistance programs;
• Long-term kinship-care impacts including educational, vocational, and social outcomes

Contributions must follow one of the three categories of papers (article, concept paper, or review) of the journal and address the topic of the Special Issue.

Dr. Marc Winokur
Dr. Greg Forehand
Guest Editors

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• kinship care
• kinship caregivers
• kinship supports
• kinship navigation
• child welfare
• child maltreatment prevention
• foster care
• relative guardianship