 The first three years after foster care: A longitudinal look at the adaptation of 16 youth to emerging adulthoodLoring Jones Children and Youth Services Review, 2011, vol. 33, issue 10, 1919-1929 Abstract: Sixteen former foster youth were followed for 3Â years to examine their adaptation to emerging adulthood. Youth were classified on their adaptation according to 2 concepts, Connectedness and Risks. Connectedness refers to engagement with the adult world through work, schooling, marriage, and parenthood. Risks refer to problems with substance abuse, financial difficulties, and mental health problems that would hinder engagement with the adult world. All of the youth maintained at least one adult connection, but only 6 youth did not have a risk at the final interview. Three years after discharge 50% of the respondents had a drug and/or alcohol problem, and had neither savings nor health insurance. Despite many problems the post foster care period was marked by much resilience as most struggled to remain independent, and continue their schooling. Factors which facilitated successful adaptations were: a period of transitional residence after foster care, good support systems including family and former social workers, and a commitment to further education. Keywords: Discharge; from; foster; care; Emancipation; Congregate; care; Emerging; adulthood (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:33:y:2011:i:10:p:1919-1929 Access Statistics for this article Children and Youth Services Review is currently edited by Duncan Lindsey More articles in Children and Youth Services Review from Elsevier |
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