Do They Get What They Expect? : The Connection Between Young Adults' Future Expectations before Leaving Care and Outcomes after Leaving Care

Background: Studies of at-risk children and adolescents identify having positive future expectations as an important protective factor linked to positive psychosocial outcomes, resiliency, and lower rates of risky behaviors. However, little attention has been paid to the importance of future expectations for care leavers as adults. The aim of this study is to examined the future expectations of young adults who are on the verge of leaving care and the correlation between those expectations and the care leaver’s outcomes a year after leaving care in the areas of housing, educational achievement, financial status, military service, and overall life satisfaction. The study also examined whether care leavers’ expectations for the future predicted their outcomes after controlling for their demographic variables (e.g., gender, ethnicity, family status) and placement history (e.g., total number of placements and total length of stay in current placement).

Methods:In stage I, 277 young adults from 26 care facilities completed a self-report questionnaire in a group setting during last year in care. These young people represented 70% out of all youth aging out of care in the welfare system annually. In stage II, 85% of these participants (N = 236) were interviewed about one year after leaving care through structured phone interviews. The instruments tapped the young adult's personal background (e.g. gender, ethnicity, and total placements, future expectations and outcomes after leaving care (e.g., educational achievement, financial status, wellbeing).

Results:Results show that overall the young adults were quite confident about their future achievements. Nevertheless, one-quarter think or are sure that they will not attain a higher education or provide a good life to their children. Also a quarter of them have negative future expectations with regards to employment and mental health Regression analysis results show that after controlling for gender, ethnicity, parent status, total number of placements and length of time in current placement, there is a positive and statistically significant relationship between future expectations and three of the outcome measures: satisfaction with housing, educational achievement and financial status.

Conclusions and implications: The findings indicate the role of future expectations as a source of resilience and motivation for care leavers, and empathize that positive beliefs about the future are an important component that produce positive outcomes among youth in care.  Discussion focuses on the importance of designing programs that addressing care leavers' self-perception and future outlook as the youth transition to adult life