2021-01-012024-05-18https://scholars.lib.ntu.edu.tw/handle/123456789/698991Kinship care can provide maltreated children a family-like, stable, and familiar caregiving setting. In Taiwan, child protection or substitute care related regulations have supported prioritizing kinship care as the first out-of-home placement option. However, in practice, compared to residential care and foster family, kinship care represents a low proportion. There are also limited studies on kinship care in Taiwan. Thus, this proposed study aims at exploring experiences working with kinship care families, caregiving needs of caregivers, and support network around the family. This study involves three phases. Each phase is an independent year-long study. In the first phase, focus groups will be conducted with Child Protective Services workers to explore their experiences about placement decision-making, strategies and/or challenges in searching and matching kinship care families, and suggestions for current regulations. In the second phase, in-depth interview will be conducted with contracted kinship care program social workers to explore current services for kinship care families, their experiences working with caregivers, and suggestions for current programs and trainings for social workers. In the third phase, a small-scale survey will be conducted with kinship caregivers. The survey questionnaire will be developed based on the findings of the first and second phase. The survey attempts to examine kinship caregivers’ caregiving needs, their perceptions of own and child well-being, and current informal and formal support system in order to offer suggestions for further modification in kinship care related regulations and programs. This proposed research aims to systematically study issues in kinship care. Findings from this research are expected to inform Taiwanese child welfare policies and to improve the child welfare system to meeting the best interests of maltreated children.kinship care; kinship placement; placement decision-making; support system