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Children Raised By Relatives Suffer Health Risks
Filed under: Relatives, Medical Conditions, In The News, Research Reveals: Babies, Research Reveals: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Research Reveals: Big Kids, Research Reveals: Tweens
Children living with family members other than their parents are at an increased risk for health and mental health problems, a recent study shows.
Far more children live with nonparental relatives -- in what is called "kinship care" -- than in foster care, about 2.8 million versus 800,000, but children from both groups suffer from similar health issues, according to the study presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in Vancouver, Canada.
"Children who live in kinship care with a relative have more special health care needs, mental health problems such as ADHD and depression, and dental problems compared with children who live with their parents," lead researcher Dr. Sara Eleoff, a pediatric fellow at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, says in a statement.
Unlike children in foster care, those living with a relative often receive little oversight from child welfare agencies. They also are more likely than children living with their parents to be black, older than 9, have public health insurance and live in households with incomes near the poverty level, the researchers found. Their caregivers often suffered from overall health or mental health problems.
Eleoff and her colleagues analyzed data from a 2007 survey of 91,000 kids and compared the health of children living in kinship care with those living with at least one birth parent.
Related: Opinion: Bacon Should Have No Bearing on Becoming a Foster Parent
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ReaderComments (Page 2 of 2)
5-12-2010 @ 7:57AM
bobbie said...what about the days before there were psychologists when the village raised the children?
Reply
5-12-2010 @ 5:36AM
Bopeep said...my in laws have been raising my husbands niece since she was three cause her just didn't want to take care of her anymore and there were problems in the home, she just had the kid to trap the boyfriend into marrying her so that he would stay with her and now they aren't even together, the niece is now my sister in law because the grandparents adopted her so that she felt safe from her real mothers threats of taking her away and not letting her see her grandparents again... the same sister in law sometime later got married again to a man from another country and he was going to leave her another woman so she got pregnant again and he stayed with her when he found out. sometime later she got mad at him and called to have him deported, they picked him up and then told her he could stay in the country if she was pregnant, so then came the next kid came alog and he was deported anyway.she was stuck with two kids that she really didn't even want so she just let them get so sick that when they stayed with me i made her take them to the er where we found out they had ear infections that wre so bad that they could have gone deaf.she now she has lost them to cousins we adopted them. all three kids are doing wonderful now that they aren't with their real parents..
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5-12-2010 @ 5:56AM
Francine said...What about the child who is given the best of everything and because of the way he grew up tortures the poor relative on a constant basis. What about the relative who needs support and love for giving up their life and taking on a huge responsibility and paying for it too if the parents are gone. What about the child that arrives with ADHD and mental issues and we have to cope with that. DO SOME RESEARCH ON THAT. THANKS
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