Life skills development among youth in foster care is critical in helping them overcome the barriers they face when leaving care. While foster care agencies, child welfare professionals, and caregivers play important roles in life skills development, little research has examined the topic from their perspectives. This study examined the barriers…

Homeschooling has grown into a large and highly diverse segment of American education. However, empirical studies of homeschooling have remained methodologically underdeveloped. The purpose of this article is to chart an agenda for a new generation of research on homeschooling. A narrative review of quantitative research published since 2000 is…

The Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) developed the "Strengthening Families Approach and Protective Factors Framework" (SF) and the "Youth Thrive Protective and Promotive Factors Framework" (YT) in response to an urgent need in the fields of child maltreatment prevention and youth services to shift from a primary…

Although abundant evidence demonstrates that play is the source of development for preschool-aged children in various cultures, few studies have investigated the role of adult-children collective play in supporting the development of children in institutional care settings. This study examined whether and how a play-based programme created…

This study was aimed at investigating the processes of socialisation and development of life skills of children from orphanages in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The study used a mixed-methods approach, including structured surveys for 200 orphanage graduates and in-depth interviews with 12 field specialists. This approach provided quantitative data…

Prior evidence shows that early childhood education (ECE) can serve as a protective factor that boosts maltreated children's school readiness outcomes. Yet, less is known about ECE's relationship to other developmental domains critical to their wellbeing including their adaptive behaviors and cognitive development. Focusing on a broader range of…

Policies and programs designed to serve children and families are sometimes misaligned with developmental science research. Broad child neglect reporting laws, first adopted by the United States in 1974, have led to families being prosecuted by child protection authorities for allowing children to participate in everyday age-appropriate activities…

This survey-based research explores data from a diverse range of 54 professionals involved in collaborative team working to support children with specific needs. The survey investigated the individual's perception of their own role, and the interactions within the team. The survey collected some quantitative data, such as age and length of time in…

This article presents the novel Child Attachment Relationship (CAR) Guide for social workers in child protection and fostering. The Guide was created to promote social workers' understandings of children's attachment relationship and to identify the means through which those understandings might be enhanced towards their practice. The research and…

Based on case studies in three states (CO, RI, and TX), this brief examines promising strategies to address the developmental and mental health needs of infants and toddlers involved in Child Welfare (CW). Due to family adversities, trauma, maltreatment, and separation from primary caregivers, these infants and toddlers are at substantial risk of…

All children -- regardless of race, class, gender, or national origin -- deserve to fulfill their potential and have the opportunity to thrive. Over the last several years, Texas children and youth have faced serious challenges and disruptions to their lives due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Children of color, in particular, were disproportionately…

Contributing to recent work in the critical sociology of childhood, this article presents an ethnographic and discursive analysis of the multitude of cultural meanings associated with "child-centeredness" in US American early childhood education. Specifically, the article focuses on Waldorf education, a private educational alternative…

The effectiveness of Promoting First Relationships (PFR), a 10-week home visiting program with video feedback, was tested in a randomized controlled trial involving 252 mothers and their 8- to 12-week-old infants. Mothers were eligible if they initiated treatment after mental health screening (depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder…

Existing research on opioid misuse and child outcomes is scattered across subfields and nascent compared to scholarship regarding consequences for adults. This scoping review synthesizes studies examining postnatal consequences of parent opioid misuse for children. Findings from 52 studies showed a descriptive connection between parental opioid…

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can negatively influence development. However, the lifelong effects of positive childhood experiences (PACEs) can mitigate the detrimental effects of adverse ones. By integrating existing knowledge about ACEs with developmental research on preventing, buffering, and treating the effects of adversity, stress,…