Research That Matters (January 17 - 20, 2008)

Identifying the particular needs and challenges of subpopulations has implications for efforts to match adolescents aging out of the child welfare system with appropriate services. Studies of the transition to adulthood for foster youth that have identified predictors of adult outcomes have used a variable-oriented approach. In contrast, person-oriented approaches to understanding developmental processes assume that such processes are best understood by examining a system of mutually interacting factors, because each factor derives its meaning and significance from its relations to the others.

In an earlier study (Keller, Cusick, & Courtney, in press), to explore the heterogeneity in adolescents' preparation for independent living, latent-class analysis was applied to the sample of young people participating in the Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth (“Midwest Study”) to identify subpopulations defined by distinctive profiles on indicators reflecting domains of life experience at age 17-18 (e.g., education, employment, parenthood, problem behavior, placement history). These four subpopulations were described by Keller et al as “distressed and disconnected” (43% of the sample), “competent and connected” (38%), “struggling but staying” (14%), and “hindered but homebound” (5%). This paper describes these subgroups of foster youth and examines how subgroup membership at age 17-18 is associated with important transition outcomes four years later.

Methods

The paper relies on data from Midwest Study participants who completed interviews at age 21 during the third survey wave. A total of 586 young people (80% of the original sample) were interviewed at age 21 and answered all of the questions that generate the dependent variables used in this analysis. Logistic and multinomial logistic regression models examined the relationship between subgroup membership at 17-18, controlling for subject demographic characteristics, and the following markers of the transition to adulthood at age 21: educational attainment, employment, parenthood, receipt of needs-based government assistance, and housing status.

Results

While subgroup membership was not associated with government assistance or housing status, it was a strong predictor of the other outcomes. For example, “distressed and disconnected” group members experienced relatively high rates of incarceration (34%) and low rates of full-time employment (29%). The “competent and connected” group attended college at a much higher rate than the other groups (44%) and was also likely to be employed full-time (40%). The “struggling but staying” group, while the most likely to be employed full-time (45%), was the least likely to have had a child (34%). Lastly, the “hindered but homebound” group was the most likely to have had a child (61%) and the least likely to experience full-time employment (23%).

Conclusions and Implications

Prior research suggests that foster youth on the verge of the transition to adulthood can be characterized as falling into a relatively small set of fairly distinct groups based on characteristics that are well known to their social workers (Keller et al, in press). This study indicates that these groups experience significantly different experiences during the transition to adulthood. The implications for targeting of services to foster youth in transition are discussed.