Premium
Informal Kinship‐Based Fostering Around the World: Anthropological Findings
Author(s) -
Leinaweaver Jessaca
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
child development perspectives
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1750-8606
pISSN - 1750-8592
DOI - 10.1111/cdep.12075
Subject(s) - kinship , autonomy , socioeconomic status , psychology , developmental psychology , power (physics) , kinship care , social psychology , sociology , anthropology , political science , population , physics , demography , quantum mechanics , law
Anthropological research around the world has documented informal, kinship‐based foster care cross‐culturally. In this article, I review some of the anthropological findings about the positive and negative characteristics of such arrangements. Research suggests that children are more likely to benefit from informal kinship‐based fostering in cultural contexts where fostering expands the pool of relatives rather than substituting one parent for another, fostering is expected to provide children with positive opportunities for learning and development, or children are granted some autonomy or decision‐making power. However, informal kinship‐based fostering seems to place children at risk in cultural contexts where the process of children's attachment to caregivers resembles the Western model of child development, communities are highly stratified along socioeconomic lines, or exploiting children is permitted. I conclude the article by discussing implications for policy and research.