Investigating Substance Use Patterns Among Homeless Youth with and without a History of Foster Care

Background: Homeless youth suffer from a wide range of risk factors that impact the length and quality of their lives. As many as 40% of all homeless youth report a history of foster care and emerging research suggests behavioral health differences between youth with and without such histories. This study aims to examine the impact of foster care experience on recent drug use, informing interventions aimed at improving behavioral health outcomes for homeless youth.

Methods: The YouthNet data set was used for this analysis, comprised of a community-based sample of 652 homeless youth ages 13-25 from two drop-in centers in Hollywood and Santa Monica, CA. A subset of this data was used for the current analysis, focusing on youth aged 18-25. All responses were based on self-reports and included questions regarding foster care experience, time homeless, and recent meth use. Logistic regressions were run in SAS to assess differences in recent substance use by youth with and without foster care histories.

Results: From the overall sample of homeless youth, nearly 40% reported being in foster care at some point in their lives, the majority of respondents reported being male, heterosexual, and African American. The average time homeless was reported as 3.9 years. Chi-square tests reveal that significant differences exist between homeless youth with and without a history of foster care for substances such as recent prescription drug use, recent alcohol use, recent cocaine use, and recent methamphetamine use. Results of the logistic regressions indicate that youth with a foster care history are more likely to have recent methamphetamine use (OR=1.50,CI=1.26-1.78) while those without this history are more likely to have recent alcohol (OR=1.21,CI=1.03-1.46) and recent cocaine use (OR=1.63,CI=1.1-2.4).

Discussion: This study has important implications for interventions aimed at improving the lives of homeless youth. While prior literature has focused interventions at reducing substance use directly, this study indicates that efforts to reduce substance use may benefit from focusing on the foster care status and experiences of homeless youth.  Homeless youth with a history of foster care displayed higher rates of recent methamphetamine use compared to those without a history of foster care, while youth without a history of foster care exhibited higher rates of recent alcohol and cocaine use.  Interventions focusing on substance abuse prevention could benefit from considering and exploring the presence and absence of foster care experience in assessing needs of homeless youth with a history of substance use.