Non-parental custody of children

The legal custody of children may be undertaken either by the state or by private individuals (adoption, fostering), which may cause stress and adjustment problems among children or hardship to parents.

Child care institutions are a worldwide phenomenon designed to cater for not only the children of broken homes, but also those who are orphaned or abandoned or who cannot be maintained as a result of poverty. Non-parental custody of children may also result during times of disaster, when aunts, uncles, cousins, or godparents may take custody of children, often without giving them full rights as members of the family by, for instance, using them as domestic help during their stay. After the 1976 Guatemalan earthquake, many children were adopted and used in this manner.