Children Cared for by Relatives: What Services Do They Need?

November, 2002 Children Cared for by Relatives: What Services Do They Need? A Publication of The Urban Institute Jennifer Ehrle and Rob Geen In 1999 2.3 million children lived with relatives without a parent present, commonly referred to as kinship care. Separation from a parent can be traumatic for a child (Bowlby 1980). Research suggests that living with a relative may minimize this trauma by providing the child with a sense of family support (Dubowitz et al. 1994). At the same time, many children in kinship care face risks to their healthy development, such as poverty, crowded households, and . . .