Resources for Relative and Kinship Caregivers: Changing Family Dynamics

Becoming a kinship caregiver can cause emotional hardships and difficulties with other family members. This page contains resources that describe the common challenges and issues faced by kinship families and strategies to effectively work through changes in family dynamics. 

8 Crucial Tips for Kinship Adoption 
Creating a Family (2016) 
Presents tips for relative caregivers on how to smoothly integrate children into your family and links to related resources to make the change easier on children and caregivers. 

Common Challenges in Kinship Care & How to Overcome Them
Creating a Family (2021)
Focuses on and breaks down the challenges kinship caregivers may face in order to validate caregivers' feelings. 

Foster or Adopted Children Who Have Been Sexually Abused
HealthyChildren.org (2017)
Provides information on establishing family guidelines for safety and privacy when it comes to parenting a child who has been sexually abused. The article lists tips for how the kinship family should behave and the impact abuse can have on the entire family.

Training Series: Coping With the Unique Challenges of Kinship Care 
Annie E. Casey Foundation (2018)
Provides a five-part video training series aimed at strengthening the skills of child welfare professionals in supporting families that may be experiencing a change of family dynamics as a result of caring for a relative's child. The resource also includes a link to the video series discussion guide to help program directors, supervisors, and child welfare trainers lead group sessions on the series. 

Understanding Trauma 
AdoptUSKids (2019) 
Provides information on caring for children exposed to trauma, including how trauma affects their brains, bodies, behavior, and ways of thinking. Caregivers can also learn how to help their foster child recover and heal from trauma. 

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