Children Cared for by Relatives: What Do We Know about Their Well-Being?

Sometimes children are not able to livewith their parents, possibly due to a par-ent’s death, incarceration, abuse or neglect,poverty, mental illness, substance abuse, orunwillingness to raise a child. During thesetimes relatives often step in to care forthese children. In 1999, 2.3 million children,or 90 percent of children not living withparents, lived with a relative—or in kinshipcare—according to the National Survey ofAmerica’s Families (NSAF).1,2Most oftenrelatives make arrangements to care for thechild privately within the family, but some-times a child welfare agency will place chil-dren who have been abused or neglectedwith relatives rather than with unrelatedfoster parents (Ehrle and Geen forthcom-ing). This practice has become increasinglycommon among child welfare agencies(U.S. Department of Health and HumanServices 2000).A separation from a parent for anextended period of time can potentially betraumatic for a child, yet living with a rela-tive may minimize the trauma by provid-ing the child with a sense of family support(Bowlby 1980; Dubowitz et al. 1994). At thesame time, previous research has shownthat many children in relative care experi-ence significant economic hardship (Ehrle,Geen, and Clark 2001). Yet it is uncertainwhether the potentially damaging risks ofpoverty to children’s development mightbe moderated by the benefits of living witha relative. In fact, very little is known aboutthe well-being of children residing with rel-atives (Altshuler and Gleeson 1999). This brief addresses this gap by exam-ining the well-being of children living inkinship care using two types of compar-isons. First, children living with kin arecompared with children living with theirparents. Findings indicate that children inkinship care face significant barriers towell-being compared with children livingwith their parents. Second, since manykinship families are poor, it is possible thatsome of these differences may be due toliving in poverty (Ehrle et al. 2001; Lee andGoerge 1999). To address this concern, wecompare children in low-income relativeand parent care households (income fallingbelow 200 percent of the federal povertylevel). Given that children in low-incomerelative care have also experienced a sepa-ration from their parents, we expected thatthey would still fare worse than childrenresiding in low-income parent care.However, findings suggest that childrenliving with low-income relatives fare worseon some measures of well-being comparedwith children living with low-income par-ents, but on others they are doing just aswell. Findings are based on data from the1997 and 1999 rounds of the NSAF, anationally representative survey of house-holds with persons under age 65.3TheNSAF includes measures of the economic,health, and social characteristics of moreNew FederalismNational Survey of America’s FamiliesSeries B, No. B-46, May 2002THE URBAN INSTITUTEAn Urban InstituteProgram to AssessChanging Social PoliciesChildren Cared for by Relatives:What Do We Know about Their Well-Being? Amy Billing, Jennifer Ehrle, and Katherine KortenkampChildren in kinshipcare face significantbarriers to well-beingcompared with childrenliving with theirparents. than 44,000 households in each of the sur-vey years. This analysis uses information onthe samples of children under age 18. Thesample of children was obtained by ran-domly selecting up to two “focal” children,one under 6 years old and one between theages of 6 and 17, from each household. Thissample of children was then weighted to berepresentative of children in the nation.Information on these children was obtainedfrom the most knowledgeable adult in thehousehold, the parent or caregiver mostknowledgeable about the child’s educationand health care. Behavioral and Emotional Well-BeingChildren in relative care may exhibitbehavioral and emotional problems formany reasons. As previously stated, simplybeing separated from parents can be detri-mental to a child’s well-being (Bowlby1973; Karen 1998). Additionally, some chil-dren may have experienced abuse orneglect by their parents that can furthercompromise healthy child development(Briere and Elliott 1994; English 1998).Alternatively, children with more behaviorproblems may be more likely to be aban-doned by a parent. Based on a six-itemscale to assess levels of behavioral andemotional problems among 6- to 17-year-olds, 13 percent of children in relative careexhibit high levels of behavioral and emo-tional problems (table 1).4This portion ishigher than the 7 percent of children livingwith parents who experience these difficul-ties. Yet percentages of children who expe-rience high levels of behavioral problemsdo not differ when comparing children inlow-income relative and parent care. Teenagers may exhibit behavioralproblems in the school setting. Twenty-sixpercent of youth age 12 to 17 in relativecare were suspended or expelled fromschool in the survey year. This portion istwice as high as the 13 percent of youthliving with pa