Abstract
Background: African American children are disproportionately placed in kinship care, specifically with kin
caregivers who have pressing service needs given their relatively poor physical and mental health, and low
economic status. Kinship caregivers often face challenges, however, they also show resilience when raising
relative children. Although the literature has examined risk and protective factors that affect kinship caregiving,
no scoping review has been conducted to summarize these factors as they relate to African American kinship
caregivers.
Objectives: This study aims to summarize the risk and protective factors that affect African American kinship
caregiving.
Methods: Twenty-six studies were identified from this scoping review. A data template was used to extract information on data/sample, research methods, and risk and protective factors.
Results: This review found that the risk and protective factors in the identified studies can be summarized into
four types: child, caregiver, relationship, and legal, cultural or social issues. Caregiver factors were examined
from the perspective of physical and behavioral health, parenting, and resources. The most common risk factors
were caregivers’ low social economic status or great financial need, and caregivers’ physical health. The most
common protective factor was caregivers’ spirituality or religion.
Discussion: This review helps to better understand the risk and protective factors for African American kinship
caregivers. Policies should be informed by African American kinship caregivers’ unique qualities to provide
useful cultural solutions. Evidence based interventions should be developed and provided to African American
kinship caregivers to improve their parenting abilities and to provide them with additional resources and supports. Implications for child welfare research are also presented.