Impact of Self-Determination Enhancement On Youth Transition to Adulthood

Background and Purpose Youth in foster care and special education, who comprise about 30% to 40% of youth in care, are at particular risk for poor transition to adulthood outcomes. While self-determination enhancement has been associated with improved transition outcomes of young people in special education (e.g., Benz & Halpern, 1995), its impact has not been evaluated with youth in foster care and special education. Powers and colleagues developed and tested a self-determination intervention for high school aged youth with learning, emotional and other health impairments (Powers et al. 2001), and this intervention was adapted for youth in foster care and special education. Referred to as My Life, the intervention includes didactic and experiential coaching in transition goal achievement, partnership development, and self-regulation skills, and exposing youth to successful older peer and adult mentors with lived experience in foster care. The intervention was experimentally evaluated using a two-independent group by three repeated measures design, with a one year follow-along. The major hypothesis was that, compared to youth in a comparison group enrolled in Independent Living Program Services, youth in the My Life intervention group would demonstrate 1) significantly higher levels of self-determination; 2) significantly higher post school outcomes (i.e., employment, stable living, academic success, quality of life); and 3) significantly higher levels of engagement in transition preparation (e.g., identification of transition goals, working with others to formulate and achieve goals, involvement in transition planning meetings, carryout activities to accomplish goals).

Methods The study included 69 youth (a) receiving special education services, (b) 16.5-17.5 years of age, (c) under the guardianship of Oregon Department of Human Services (with at least 90 days in foster care) and (d) living in Multnomah County. To ensure the treatment and control groups were similar with regards to severity of disability, we blocked participants into two groups: 1) youth who received developmental disability services and 2) youth who did not. Youth were randomly assigned to either the treatment or comparison group within these strata. Comparison group youth were enrolled in the Foster Care Independent Living Program. Participants in the treatment group were involved in the My Life intervention for approximately 12 months, with an average dosage of 50 hours of coaching. Assessments were conducted at baseline, 12 months, and 24 months. Fidelity of treatment implementation was high (above 90%) and the overall participant attrition rate in the study was 13%.

Results Findings show the intervention group as a whole achieved significant gains in self determination, quality of life, transition planning, employment, high school completion, and preparation for postsecondary education.

Conclusions and Implications The My Life intervention appears to be a promising approach for promoting youths' self-determination and transition success. A larger randomized trial with 200 young people in foster care and special education is now underway to further evaluate the outcomes of the intervention. Ultimately, this approach could be collaboratively implemented by Foster Care and educational agencies to assist youth to establishing successful trajectories for their adult lives.