Abstract
Unique service needs exist for expectant or parenting youth with foster care histories (EPY) and their families. Informed by Critical Ecological Systems Theory (CEST), this exploratory ...qualitative study presents findings from an inductive content analysis of in‐depth interviews and focus groups with EPY and service providers. The study included nine in‐depth face‐to‐face interviews with service providers (
n
= 5) and EPY (
n
= 4) as well as five focus groups with service providers (
n
= 23) and three with EPY (
n
= 7) to identify the characteristics of service providers, agencies and systems that may act as barriers to service utilization among EPY with a foster care history (
n =
10) or juvenile justice history (
n
= 1). Service provider characteristics included negative attitudes towards EPY and/or those with child welfare experiences. Agency characteristics included a lack of workforce diversity, employee turnover, lack of training about diverse communities, restrictive enrolment processes and eligibility requirements, lack of childcare and transportation and limited accessibility of services. System characteristics included a lack of up‐to‐date information about existing services, territorialism, funding sources that do not prioritize interagency collaboration and a lack of communication/coordination among agencies. Implications include hiring and retaining a diverse workforce, providing training about diverse communities and implicit biases concerning young parents, developing navigation services specifically for EPY and developing processes for sharing data and communicating across systems that interact with EPY.
•There has been an explosion of programs for youth who age out of foster care.•There is limited information regarding effectiveness of these programs.•We use the CEBC for Child Welfare’s Scientific ...Rating Scale to assess the evidence.•Of the 79 programs found, 10 (13%) yielded a rating on the CEBC Scale.•Sixty-four programs targeted vulnerable populations, but only 10 could be rated.
The 1999 John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Act expanded a federal funding stream for independent living/transition services for older youth (ages 14+) in and transitioning from foster care. As a result, there has been a proliferation of programs that target youth who are likely to age out of foster care with the intention of improving their emerging adulthood outcomes. These programs aim to improve wellbeing outcomes related to education, employment, housing, health/mental health, and relationships. Using a scoping review framework, we sought to take stock of the state of the science of the programs and interventions (PIs) currently available for young people who age out of foster care. We offer research recommendations regarding how the field can move forward with promoting improved wellbeing of young people in care as they transition to adulthood. We assess to what extent both services for young people aging out of care and related research has included vulnerable populations, including pregnant/parenting youth, LGBTQ + youth, youth of color, youth with disabilities, and crossover youth.
Using the National Governors Association’s Center for Best Practices (2010) as a guide, we searched the research and gray literatures for PIs that target education, employment, housing, health/mental health, and relationships. Then, we searched the research and gray literatures for evidence of effectiveness in the form of peer-reviewed scientific articles and evaluation reports. Next, based on the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse (CEBC) for Child Welfare’s Scientific Rating Scale, we assigned each PI a rating (1 = Well-Supported by Research Evidence, 2 = Supported by Research Evidence, 3 = Promising Research Evidence, 4 = Failure to Demonstrate Effect, and 5 = Concerning Practice).
Of the 79 PIs we found, 10 (13%) yielded a rating from 1 to 5. The best rating in any of the five practice areas was a 2 (“Supported by Research Evidence”), which applied to four programs. The area with the most rated programs was relationships, with four programs receiving a rating. The area with the least PIs was health/mental health care, with only a single program receiving a rating. Regarding vulnerable populations, 64 programs targeted at least one of the vulnerable populations of interest; 10 (16%) were rated with the CEBC Scale.
When the Foster Care Independence Act was passed, there was a dearth of PIs that targeted the wellbeing of older youth in foster care who were likely to age out. In the last 20 years, we have done an excellent job developing PIs. Given the results of this scoping review, we must now build the evidence for the PIs that already exist. This process entails ensuring agencies are equipped with the capacities to implement PIs to fidelity and that procedures are in place to examine the effectiveness for the many PIs that are already being delivered to marginalized young people who age out of care. Special attention should also be devoted to testing the efficacy and effectiveness of existing PIs for vulnerable populations, as their experiences have not been adequately illuminated by previous research.
Young people in foster care frequently experience early parenting, and U.S. law requires the documentation of parents in care. The extent to which the child protection system (CPS) has accurately ...collected information on parents in care remains largely unknown and has ramifications for the planning and delivery of services.
Using California as a case study, this study documented young mothers in care using birth records, determined the proportion of mothers correctly identified in CPS records, and compared characteristics and placements of mothers who were or were not identified.
All mothers aged 15–21 years documented by vital birth records (2014 and 2019) were probabilistically linked to CPS records, yielding 3199 mothers in care.
We compared mothers who were or were not identified in CPS records using bivariate statistics. A chi-square test for trends examined differences in documentation over time.
A third of mothers were not identified as such in CPS records (n = 1136). The proportion of mothers identified by caseworkers rose from 50 % in 2014 to 71.5 % in 2019 (p < .001). Nonminor dependent mothers and those placed in supervised independent living programs were more likely to be misclassified in CPS data.
Motherhood may not be documented in CPS records; however, significant improvements were evident. Results suggest that all nonminor dependents should be informed of available services for expectant and parenting individuals, especially if they are living in less restrictive placements, given they are more likely to give birth and less likely to be identified in CPS records than minor dependents.
The child welfare system disproportionately harms Black children and families through systemic over-surveillance, over-involvement, and the resulting adverse outcomes associated with foster care. ...Ending this harm will only be achieved when the forcible surveillance and separation of children from their parents is no longer viewed as an acceptable form of intervention. This paper describes the upEND movement, a collaborative movement aimed at abolishing the child welfare system as we know it and reimagining how we as a society support child, family, and community safety and well-being.
Little is known about the impact of child welfare system-level factors on child mortality as an outcome within foster care. Using data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, ...2009–2018, we examined the associations between county-level sociodemographic, foster care performance, and judicial reform characteristics with all-cause mortality rates. Results of random effects negative binomial regression analyses showed that higher proportions of younger children (<1 year: IRR = 1.06, 95% CI 1.02, 1.11; 5–9 years: IRR = 1.05, 95% CI 1.01, 1.09); children of color (i.e., non-Hispanic Asian: IRR = 1.07, 95% CI 1.01, 1.13; multiracial: IRR = 1.03, 95% CI 1.01, 1.04; non-Hispanic Black: IRR = 1.02, 95% CI 1.01, 1.02; Hispanic: IRR = 1.01, 95% CI 1.01, 1.02); and male children (IRR = 1.10, 95% CI 1.05, 1.15) were associated with higher mortality risks at the county level. Current class action lawsuits (IRR = 0.79, 95% CI 0.63, 0.99) and active consent decrees (IRR = 0.77, 95% CI 0.63, 0.94) were associated with lower mortality risks. None of the foster care performance characteristics (e.g., foster care entry, placement stability, permanency) were associated with mortality risks. These findings have implications for addressing health disparities and reforming foster care systems through programmatic and policy efforts.
•Kinship caregiving is beneficial for long term outcomes of children in foster care.•Finding ways to support kinship caregivers is necessary to increase such placements.•Stakeholders identified ...salient personal and systemic barriers and facilitators to care.•Operational and policy interventions are needed to address kinship families’ needs.
Kinship caregivers are often considered the preferred placement for children in foster care. Children placed with kinship caregivers tend to have better emotional and behavioral health outcomes than children placed in other settings. Despite this, kinship caregivers receive limited resources to help provide for the children in their care.
This study utilized focus groups, interviews, and an online survey to obtain a mixed methods perspective of needs and resources available to kinship caregivers from a multitude of stakeholder groups. Stakeholder groups included were kinship caregivers, healthcare providers, child welfare advocates, and child-placing agency staff. Focus group and interview transcriptions were coded using a mixed deductive-inductive approach to identify salient themes. Survey responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Areas of convergence and divergence between quantitative and qualitative findings were identified and discussed. Triangulation was used to integrate complementary qualitative and quantitative data.
Four salient overarching themes emerged from the analysis: 1) Navigating Personal and Family Challenges, 2) Personal Facilitating Supports and Resources, 3) Systemic Barriers, and 4) Systemic Facilitators, each comprising multiple sub-themes.
Kinship caregivers face numerous barriers to providing care for children placed with them and limited facilitators to help ensure successful placements. Although the needs of kinship caregivers are being examined and prioritized in the legislature, operational and policy-level interventions are needed. Results from this study allow for interventions tailored to the needs of kinship caregivers in the State of Texas as identified by a multitude of stakeholder groups.
Each year tens of millions of federal dollars are invested to promote secondary and postsecondary educational attainment among older youth in foster care. Despite the presumption that this is a sound ...investment, as indicated by copious research from studies of the general U.S. population, research examining the payoff among youth transitioning to adulthood from state care has been sparse. In the present study, we analyze the relationship between educational attainment and employment outcomes among youth exiting care. Drawing on data from a large, multi-state study of youth transitioning from foster care, findings indicate that increased education, and particularly degree completion, is associated with greater earnings and lower employment rates. Compared to young adults matched on educational attainment from a nationally representative study, youth formerly in foster care earn about half and the employment rate is 20 points lower. However, increased levels of education have larger benefits for youth who exited care than youth from the general population, and at higher levels of attainment the two groups have similar employment rates and earnings gaps become less pronounced. Among youth formerly in care, results from regression analyses indicate that, compared to individuals with no high school credential, a GED or certificate of completion predicts no benefits in earnings or likelihood of being employed; a diploma predicts an earnings benefit; and some college, a two-year degree, and a four-year degree or greater predict large benefits in earnings and likelihood of employment. We conclude by briefly discussing implications for policy, practice, and future research.
•Earnings of youth formerly in foster care are about half that of a national sample.•Employment rate is 20 points lower for youth formerly in care.•Outcomes disparities between the two groups narrow with college attainment.•H.S. diploma predicts significantly greater earnings for youth formerly in care.•College attainment predicts significantly greater earnings and higher employment.
Objective: The purpose of this research was to provide a prospective look at the relationship between change in placement and problem behaviors over a 12-month period among a cohort of foster ...children.
Method: The sample contained 415 youth, and was part of a larger cohort of children who entered foster care in San Diego, California and remained in placement for at least 5 months. The Child Behavior Check List was used to assess behavior problems. Every change of placement during the first 18 months after entry into the foster care system was abstracted from case records.
Results: The results suggest that volatile placement histories contribute negatively to both internalizing and externalizing behavior of foster children, and that children who experience numerous changes in placement may be at particularly high risk for these deleterious effects. Initial externalizing behaviors proved to be the strongest predictor of placement changes for the entire sample and for a sub-sample of those who initially evidenced problem behaviors on at least one broad-band CBCL scale. Our findings also suggest that children who initially score within normal ranges on the CBCL may be particularly vulnerable to the detrimental effects of placement breakdowns.
Conclusions: On the basis of these findings we argue for an analytical approach that views behavior problems as both a cause and as a consequence of placement disruption. Children who do not evidence behavior problems may in fact constitute a neglected population that responds to multiple disruptions of their primary relationships with increasingly self-defeating behaviors.
•Supporting foster carers is important given the role demands and expectations inherent in their daily work, however many may experience burnout and secondary traumatic stress leading to carer ...attrition and children’s placement instability.•The Mockingbird FamilyTM is a promising model involving collective foster caring. It shows potential to support foster carers, thereby strengthening and stabilizing the environment of children and young people in care.•We measured the Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) of foster carers in the Mockingbird FamilyTM in Australia and compared their ProQOL with foster carers caring as usual. We showed that Mockingbird FamilyTM model may have positive associations with improvements in compassion satisfaction and reductions in compassion fatigue among carers.
Children’s behaviours and support system typology are potential predictors of foster carer compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress (i.e., Professional Quality of Life, ProQOL). Little is known about the ProQOL of Mockingbird FamilyTM foster carers compared to foster carers caregiving as usual.
This study aimed to: Examine ProQOL of Mockingbird FamilyTM carers compared to other carers; Explain associations between ProQOL, demographic characteristics, and determinants of ProQOL.
Participants and setting: Two groups were studied: Mockingbird FamilyTM carers (n = 27) and other carers (n = 89) of children < 18yrs. The sample was drawn from a single registered foster care agency following implementation of the Mockingbird FamilyTM in Australia.
Cross-sectional, comparative mixed method design. Participants completed self-report questionnaires incorporating demographic questions, ProQOL instrument developed by Stamm (2010), and qualitative questions, analysed using SPSS 28.01 and thematically.
Pearson correlation, t-test and ANOVA showed Mockingbird FamilyTM carers had a better ProQOL compared to carers caregiving as usual, with associations identified between ProQOL and socio-demographic aspects including gender, ProQOL and foster caring experience, and ProQOL and carers’ engagement of the children in community activities. Qualitative data showed that communication, relevance of training, and the quality of statutory and agency supports to members of the Mockingbird FamilyTM were key determinants of ProQOL.
Our findings showed that the Mockingbird FamilyTM model of foster care may improve the ProQOL of carers, compared to carers undertaking caregiving as usual. We recommend further research to examine associations with placement breakdown and carer attrition rates.
