TY - JOUR
T1 - Transition from Foster Care
T2 - A Cross Sectional Comparison of Youth Outcomes Twenty Years Apart
AU - Reilly, Thom
AU - Schlinkert, David
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding for foster care youth stipends was provided by the Walter S Johnson Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Young adults aging out of the foster care system have received a good deal of attention over the years from policymakers, child welfare practitioners and researchers. Despite these efforts, youth aging out of the foster care system continue to have well-documented challenges when transitioning to adulthood. In this cross-sectional comparative study, we assess the outcomes of emancipated youth after the initiation of an extended after care program and compare the results with the outcomes drawn from a prior study conducted twenty years earlier. Overall, young adults in the 2021 study fared significantly better than their 2001 counterparts. They had increased positive health outcomes, were more financially secure, had a notable decline in involvement with law enforcement, were engaged in less illegal activity, had better educational outcomes, fewer job terminations, were experiencing less homelessness, were less likely to be married, and had fewer pregnancies and children than youth in the 2001 study. The provision of training and concrete services was associated with more positive outcomes. The article advances implications for policy interventions.
AB - Young adults aging out of the foster care system have received a good deal of attention over the years from policymakers, child welfare practitioners and researchers. Despite these efforts, youth aging out of the foster care system continue to have well-documented challenges when transitioning to adulthood. In this cross-sectional comparative study, we assess the outcomes of emancipated youth after the initiation of an extended after care program and compare the results with the outcomes drawn from a prior study conducted twenty years earlier. Overall, young adults in the 2021 study fared significantly better than their 2001 counterparts. They had increased positive health outcomes, were more financially secure, had a notable decline in involvement with law enforcement, were engaged in less illegal activity, had better educational outcomes, fewer job terminations, were experiencing less homelessness, were less likely to be married, and had fewer pregnancies and children than youth in the 2001 study. The provision of training and concrete services was associated with more positive outcomes. The article advances implications for policy interventions.
KW - Aging out
KW - Extended after care programs
KW - Extended after care programs
KW - Foster care
KW - Transition to adulthood
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U2 - 10.1007/s10560-022-00901-0
DO - 10.1007/s10560-022-00901-0
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85141689368
SN - 0738-0151
JO - Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal
JF - Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal
ER -