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Background: There are many appealing reasons to support kinship foster care as an alternative to other types of out-of-home care. In South Korea, however, less is known about whether or not kinship foster care is beneficial for children's development, and nothing is known about how kinship foster care compares with other types of out-of-home care in terms of its associations with children's developmental outcomes. Objective: This study aimed to examine the associations between kinship foster care and children's school adjustment, which were separately compared with institutional and group home care. Methods: This study used data from a nationally representative sample of 414 children in out-of-home care in South Korea and employed propensity score weighting to address selection bias. Results: The main analyses revealed that the children in kinship foster care showed more bonding to school and less misbehavior at school than the children in institutional care. Children in grandparent foster care also showed more bonding to school than those in group home care. Interaction analyses suggested that the associations between specific types of kinship foster care and children's school adjustment varied by the child's gender and the presence of a biological father. Conclusions: Implications for research, policy, and practice to improve the healthy development of children in out-of-home care were discussed based upon the results.

Abstract Little is known about refugee children in Korea, making it challenging to work with this population for social work and human service agencies. Employing thematic analysis method for individual in-depth and focus group interviews, this study examined difficulties of refugee children's past in their mother land, refugee camps (pre-displacement) and current experiences in Korea (post-migration) to draw implications for social work policy and practices. Five children for individual in-depth interviews and 10 children (five each from two separate ethnic groups) for focus group interviews were recruited. Their ages were between 9 and 18 years. Five main themes emerged: chaos, daily hassles, changed life, helping hands, and dreams along with their displacement process. This study addresses partnership between the Korean government and private agencies to meet basic and psychosocial needs of refugee children based on United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer relationship difficulties are strongly correlated with aggressive behaviors among adolescents in cross-sectional studies. However, effects of aggressive behaviors on peer relationship difficulties are known to be inconsistent. Longitudinal reciprocal effects between these two variables are currently unclear. Using data from the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey from 2011 to 2013, this study investigated longitudinal reciprocal effects between these two variables in Korean adolescents. Participants were 2,280 second-grade middle school students (eighth graders in the USA) at Time 1. Results from autoregressive cross-lagged model showed that peer relationship difficulties and aggressive behaviors were stable over a three-year period while longitudinal effects between these two variables were mutually and positively significant. However, the impact of peer relationship difficulties on aggressive behaviors was greater than that of the opposite (i.e., the impact of aggressive behaviors on peer relationship difficulties). Findings of this study suggest that schools should focus on preventive education and counseling for adolescents' peer relationship problems and aggressive behaviors. Furthermore, in-service trainings for teachers and counselors focusing on enhancing their understandings of these reciprocal relationships may help students improve peer relationship while reducing aggressive behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outcome studies of children in out-of-home care have focused on negative psychosocial issues, and very few studies have addressed personal and institutional factors that affect successful transitions into young adulthood. Adopting a resilience model and using a case study method, this study examines successful transitions of children from out-of-home care to young adulthood in Korea to draw implications for child welfare practice and policies. Five young adults in their 20s and 30s were interviewed between November 2015 and January 2016. Two main themes and six subthemes were identified: Social support and individual factors. Social support included significant others as informal support and formal support as stepping stones. Individual factors were studying as a survival skill, surviving in a tough and formidable world, self-control, and putting the past behind and moving forward. Based on the results, the study presents ways to facilitate smooth transitions to young adulthood which includes promotion of healthy relationships between a child and staff and educational support to help them complete higher education that eventually leads them to stable employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this study is to assess whether the physical health of Korean adolescents in out-of-home care is affected directly by traumatic childhood experiences and/or indirectly through depression and anxiety. Study participants are 460 adolescents who are included in the first and second wave of the Panel Study on Korean Children in Out-of-Home Care. The data are analyzed using structural equation modeling. Our structural model finds no direct effects of traumatic experiences on physical health. Among the two types of trauma experiences, namely, family instability and violence experiences, only violence experiences affect physical health indirectly through depression and anxiety. Based on the results, practice implications for Korean adolescents in care are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using unique 5-year longitudinal data on Korean children in group homes and those under institutional care, this paper compared the medium-term cost-effectiveness of group homes and that of institutional care facilities in terms of developmental outcomes. Results from propensity score matching estimation show that children in group homes tend to have more desirable positive outcomes and fewer behavioral problems in the medium term to a statistically significant margin. The cost-effectiveness ratio of being placed in a group home is consistently higher than placement in an institutional care facility. That is, for one dollar spent on an out-of-home care service, we anticipate the children in group homes have more desirable outcomes in the medium term than their counterparts in institutional care facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite an increase of refugee children in Korea, there is a dearth of empirical study on their school adjustment. The purpose of this study is to examine group differences in the level of school adjustment by sex, school level, Korean language proficiency, having a nationality, refugee status, and discrimination experience, and to test a mediating role of perceived social support between depression and school adjustment. We recruited 65 refugee children via purposive and snowball sampling methods, and conducted face-to-face survey for younger children and a self-administered survey for older children from July to October 2017. We found group differences in school adjustment according to having a nationality, refugee status, and discrimination experience. We also found a full mediating effect of social support in the relationship between depression and school adjustment. Based on the results, we discussed ways in which the Korean school system and social-work service agencies need to help refugee children increase their adaptability in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Children in out-of-home care are known to suffer from various physical health problems. • Poor health status would force the children in care into vulnerable positions of being bullied at school. • The study data are obtained from the Panel Study on Korean Children in Out-of-Home Care. • The study finds that physical health problems negatively affect self-esteem, depression and anxiety, and social withdrawal. • The influence of physical health problems is mediated on depression and anxiety through bullying victimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study is one of the first longitudinal investigations of outcomes from different types of out-of-home foster care services in Korea. The main purpose of the study is to compare foster care with institutional care by focusing on two concerns: (1) children's perception of the caregiving services and (2) developmental outcomes of such services. Study participants included 342 children in institutional and foster care in Korea, all of whom participated in both the first and the second wave surveys for the Panel Study on Korean Children in Out-of Home-Care. The first-wave survey was conducted in 2010; the second wave survey was conducted in 2011. The data were analyzed using the Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE), the Chi-square test, ANOVA, and descriptive data analysis. The results from GEE showed significant relationships between placement types and placement outcomes. In particular, children in foster care groups perceived caregiving services more positively than those in institutional care overall. In addition, each of the foster care groups revealed more positive developmental outcomes compared to the institution group. We did not find major differences among different types of foster care placements. In summary, our findings suggest that the effects of foster care are more positive than those of institutional care. Based on the results, we discuss practice implications, including the concern of using institutional care as a major out-of-home care service in Korea. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]