Children brought up by extended family members should not always have contact with their parents as it could harm their mental health, according to new research. Interviews carried out for the charity Grandparents Plus examined the effects of parental contact on the increasing number of children being cared for by relatives other than their parents . It is estimated that more than 180,000 children in the UK are being raised by a family member – often referred to as kinship caring. More than half of the children (51%) live with a grandparent, 23% with an older sibling, and the rest with other relatives. In many cases the courts have ruled the parents are not fit to care for their children, often because they are involved in crime or have addiction issues. Until now the presumption among social workers and the courts is that contact with parents is usually beneficial for such children. But the study found that in many cases this may not be true. The research, based on interviews with 53 young people, found that 42% of those who had contact with their mothers as teenagers were likely to have poor mental health as young adults, compared with 12%… Read full this story
- Academic pressure hindering mental health
- Remote areas lack mental health services: study
- Babies switched at birth reunited with parents
- China's child modelling industry booms amid controversy
- Conference on project to end child labour
- Foreign parents fight in vain for custody in Japan
- High school pupils suffer mental stress - Health & Education
- Chinese couples can't afford a second child, no matter what Beijing wants
- To your Health: Finding the New Balance in a New Age
- Vietnam still lacks legal framework to protect child labour
Is contact with parents always best? Child mental health study challenges convention have 271 words, post on www.theguardian.com at November 26, 2017. This is cached page on Vietnam Colors. If you want remove this page, please contact us.