Sexual and gender minority disproportionality and disparities in child welfare: A population-based study

Bianca D.M. Wilson and Angeliki A. Kastanis

Children and Youth Services Review, 2015, vol. 58, issue C, 11-17

Abstract: Empirical research is needed to support ongoing efforts to improve services for sexual and gender minority youth in foster care. Further, data on the presence of sexual and gender minority youth within the child welfare system are needed to encourage counties that have not yet begun to engage in any efforts to address the unique needs and barriers to permanency for these youth. The current study reports on the findings of the Los Angeles Foster Youth Survey (LAFYS) which was designed to assess the proportion of youth placed in the Los Angeles County public child welfare system who are LGBTQ and to examine their experiences in communities, schools, and foster care. Findings indicate that approximately 19% of Los Angeles foster youth are LGBTQ. This proportion of youth is significantly higher than estimates of adolescent and young adult sexual and gender minority identification rates in the general population. Further, analyses also indicate that sexual and gender minority youth in this study are less satisfied with their child welfare system experience, are more likely to experience homelessness, are moved around to more placements, and are experiencing higher levels of emotional distress compared to their non-LGBTQ counterparts.

Keywords: LGBT youth; Disproportionality; Sexual orientation; Gender identity; Child welfare; Demography (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740915300463
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:58:y:2015:i:c:p:11-17

DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.08.016

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
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().