Online Published on 05 November, 2022.
Previous child protection research offers considerable insight into how to develop policies advancing international child protection. To examine the “best interest of the child” standard, the current study explores how children housed in six Armenian residential childcare institutions (RCI) perceive relationships with facility caregivers and peers. Results indicate that the children perceive each other as siblings, while the relationship between the children and directors is nurturing and supportive. While biological families may be perceived as serving the best interests of the child because of a genetic relationship, the dismissal of RCI as efficacious alternatives is misguided. Rather than reflexively advocating for the repudiation of RCI, which may deny vulnerable children a de facto familial environment, decision-makers should weigh the consequences of child rearing with biological families against all alternative environments, including institutionalisation.
