Family Contact for Children in Kinship Care: A Literature Review

Abstract

Kinship care has been growing rapidly across the English-speaking world over the last decade. While family contact is an identified right of children removed from their families and maintains important relationships, contact with parents where there has been child abuse and neglect remains contentious. The evidence base in relation to family contact in kinship care is limited. Therefore, this article presents the current state of knowledge in the form of a narrative review of qualitative and quantitative research. Contradictory theoretical orientations are outlined together with the limits they impose on the development and application of knowledge. While the complexity of parental contact is confirmed, a consistent finding is that kinship care provides children with strong family networks including sustained relationships with parents, siblings, and extended family, and maintenance of children's culture and identity. Suggestions for the development of the research agenda are made, together with implications for policy and practice.

Keywords:

• Child and Family Welfare
• Child Abuse
• Out-of-home Care
• Child Protection
• Consumer and Carer Participation
• Grandparents as Carers

Acknowledgements

Financial and in-kind support for the Family Links research project has been received from the Victorian Department of Human Services; the Victorian Commission for Children and Young People; the Federal Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA); the R. E. Ross Trust, and the Creswick Foundation for Child and Adolescent Development.