Bridging Disciplinary Boundaries (January 11 - 14, 2007)

Previous research on young adults who have aged out of foster care has found that homelessness and housing instability are significant problems among this population. However, these studies have not examined why some foster youth experience housing instability or homelessness after they leave care whereas other foster youth do not. Thus, one purpose of this paper is to consider how housing instability and homelessness are related to foster youth characteristics and placement histories.

The other purpose of the paper is to examine the relationship between housing instability or homelessness and social bonds. Hirschi's (1969) social bond theory suggests that a lack of attachment to family and to social institutions can contribute to deviant behavior, such as juvenile delinquency or adult crime. This same lack of attachment might also help explain the homelessness and housing instability that some foster youth experience after they leave care.

The paper uses data from the Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth, a longitudinal study that is following more than 700 youth as they transition out of foster care in three Midwestern states (Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois). These youth were interviewed at age 17 or 18 while they were still in care and then again at age 19. The paper focuses on the 321 young adults who were no longer in care at that second interview.

Fourteen percent of these young adults had been homeless at least once since leaving care, and 53 percent of the ever homeless young adults had been homeless more than once. Housing instability was even more prevalent. Although these young adults had only been out of care for a median of 14 months, 15 percent had already lived in three or more places and another 13 percent had lived in four or more.

To examine the relationship between these housing outcomes and potential risk factors, we estimated a series of logistic regression models. One set of models predicted housing instability (i.e., lived in at least 3 different places since discharge); another predicted homelessness. All of our models included characteristics of the youth and characteristics of their experiences in foster care. Because we were particularly interested in the role of social bonds, our model also included measures of social support, closeness to family and institutional attachments (i.e., work and school).

Consistent with social bond theory, feeling close to at least one family member and perceiving more social support were associated with a decreased likelihood of becoming homeless. More perceived social support was also associated a decreased likelihood of housing instability, although closeness to family was not. By contrast, there was no relationship between either outcome and school enrollment or employment.

The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy and practice implications of these findings.