Fostering Healthy Futures through Mentoring for Maltreated Teens with Child Welfare Involvment

Background and Purpose: Families with child welfare involvement face stigma and often do not seek non-mandated services. In addition, many low-resource families are focused on providing for their families’ instrumental needs and may not have the social capital or ability to sign their children up for prevention programming that focuses on positive youth development. Similarly, foster and kinship care parents are often overburdened with meeting the service requirements for children in their care (e.g., transporting children to therapy, visitation, court hearings) and may not be thinking about prevention efforts. Finally, maltreated teens are less likely to independently access resources and opportunities available at their schools and in their communities. We know, however, that maltreated youth with child welfare involvement are at great risk for adverse psychosocial outcomes. The Fostering Healthy Futures for Teens (FHF-T) program was designed to address these challenges and promote positive youth development for this population. This paper will describe the methodology and outcomes from a recent pilot study of the FHF-T program.  

Methods: The FHF-T program recruits teenagers with child welfare involvement in 4 metro county areas. This paper focuses on the pilot randomized controlled trial findings (N=28). The sample was racially/ethnically diverse and 57% identified as male. Baseline interviews were conducted prior to randomization and youth were re-interviewed 1-year post intervention. Measures assessed a variety of positive and negative youth outcomes using psychometrically-sound instruments. Those who were randomized to the FHF-T program received a mentor (i.e., a social work intern) for 30 weeks over the academic year. Mentoring focused on visioning, goal setting, skills training, and connection with other healthy adults.

Results: The pilot study demonstrated substantial program uptake, with teens averaging 74.4% of completed mentoring visits and 88.1% of them graduating from the program. Teens’ average ratings of the program were 9.1 on a scale of 1 (“Poor”) to 10 (“Excellent”). In addition, 100% of youth answered “yes” to: “Knowing what you know now about this program, would you have signed up?” Caregivers reported that mentors engaged teens “well” (33.3%) or “very well” (66.7%). Preliminary outcome analyses compared the intervention (n = 12) and control (n = 16) conditions 1-year post intervention. The groups did not differ on any measures at baseline. At follow-up, intervention youth reported significantly (p<.05) higher caregiver support, greater involvement in extracurricular activities, and greater connection to school. There were also statistical trends suggesting intervention youth had greater pride in their cultural background and more prosocial attitudes toward relationship violence and substance use.

Conclusions and Implications: The preliminary findings suggest that the FHF-T mentoring program is highly acceptable to teens and their families and may result in positive outcomes for youth. From a social justice perspective, the FHF-T program offers families that often face stigma, stress, and inequity, the opportunity to engage in positive and prosocial programming that builds on youths’ strengths. Additional research is warranted to examine the potential benefit of mentoring in enhancing healthy development for other underserved populations.