What is an essential feature of kinship care?

The essential feature of kinship care is that it involves care provided by a relative. This concept is rooted in the idea of maintaining family connections and support systems for children who cannot remain with their immediate parents. In kinship care, relatives, such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, or older siblings, step in to provide a stable living environment, helping to preserve the child's social and familial bonds.

This approach is seen as beneficial because it can mitigate the trauma and instability that may accompany placement in foster care systems or adoption outside the family context. By providing care within the family network, kinship care often leads to better emotional and social outcomes for the child, maintaining their cultural and familial heritage.

Other options, such as placement of children outside the family or formal adoption procedures, do not align with the core principle of kinship care, which emphasizes familial relationships as a source of support. Additionally, foster care by strangers diverges from this concept as it typically involves non-relatives stepping in to care for the child, which can create additional emotional challenges for the child compared to being placed with a family member.