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The review authors are Marc Winokur and Deborah Valentine, Social Work Research Center, School of Social Work, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, USA; and Amy Holtan, Department of Clinical Medicine, Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Faculty of Medicine, Tromsų, Norway.
The Leonard E. Gibbs Award
Campbell's Social Welfare Coordinating Group Editorial Board created the awards program to encourage the production of rigorous systematic reviews that can inform social welfare policy and practice. The award is named in honour of Leonard E. Gibbs (1943-2008), who was one of the leaders of the Evidence-Based Practice movement.
- Leonard Gibbs was an inspirational leader. I think he would have been very impressed with the kinship care review because it addresses an important topic in the care of children who have been abused or neglected. In addition to thanking the authors, a thank you is owed to Geraldine Macdonald and Jane Dennis for superb editorial support in bringing this review to fruition, says Social Welfare Group Editor Julia Littell.
The Leonard E. Gibbs Award is given for the first time this year, and will be presented during Campbell's Annual Colloquium in Oslo, Norway, 18- 20 May.
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Child abuse and neglect are problems that lead to negative consequences for children, families and communities. Abused or neglected children are often removed from the home and placed in residential care or with other families, including foster families. Typically these caregivers are not related to the children placed with them, and did not know them before the placement was arranged.
In recent years a range of countries have introduced policies that favour placing children who cannot live at home with other members of their family or with friends of the family. This is known as 'kinship care' or 'families and friends care'.
The objective of the review was to evaluate the effect of kinship care placement compared to non-kinship foster care placement on the safety, permanency, and well-being of children removed from the home for maltreatment. The sixty two quasi-experimental studies evaluated as the most strongly designed and executed available on this topic were included in the review.
Review findings
The review concludes that kinship care is a viable out-of-home placement option. Children in kinship care may do better than children in traditional foster care in terms of their behavioural development, mental health, and placement stability. However, this conclusion is tempered by the pronounced methodological and design weaknesses of the included studies.
The kinship care review is the first review to be published in the Campbell Collaboration's new review format. Access the systematic review in full text.