Abstract Excerpt from ScienceDirect – Despite longstanding policy preferences favoring kinship care placements over non-relative family foster care placements, research findings on the benefits of kinship care vary by measurement, assessed outcome, follow-up period, and other study design elements. We examined early adulthood outcomes—incarceration and teen parenthood—among WI youth who entered foster care in early-to-middle childhood (ages 5–10).
Results suggest that initial placement in kin or nonrelative kinship care was not significantly related to imprisonment or teenage parenthood directly; however, first placement in kinship care is associated with fewer moves, longer duration in care, and a higher probability of a new maltreatment investigation, which in turn is related to long-term outcomes…