Development, Feasibility, and Piloting of a Novel Natural Mentoring Intervention for Older Youth in Foster Care

Background/Purpose: Aging out of foster care, or emancipating without a legally binding permanent adult connection, is associated with increased deleterious emerging adulthood outcomes.  Research indicates that the enduring presence of a caring adult, such as a natural mentor, can serve protectively for emancipating foster youth.  Caring Adults ‘R’ Everywhere (C.A.R.E.) is a novel, child welfare-based intervention designed to facilitate and support the development of growth-fostering natural mentor relationships amongst aging out youth.  The aims of this study were (1) to test the feasibility of implementing C.A.R.E. as an intervention for older foster youth, and (2) to test the feasibility of conducting a randomized controlled pilot study in a child welfare setting with older foster youth.

Method:  Twenty-four foster youth aged 18 – 20.5 years residing in out-of-home care were recruited and randomly assigned to the intervention group (n = 12) or the control group (n= 12).  A mixed-methods concurrent nested approach was utilized with priority given to qualitative inquiry.  Process-oriented data were collected via participant evaluations, activity reports, weekly team meetings, and a comprehensive interview with the interventionist at the conclusion of C.A.R.E. Survey data were collected pre- and post- intervention in order to inform our second research question (i.e., the feasibility of conducting an RCT among older foster youth in child welfare).  Qualitative analyses were guided by a directed content analytic approach whereby we deductively applied a set of a priori research questions and organized the data in terms of their relevance to each question.  For the quantitative analyses, descriptive statistics, t-tests and chi-square tests were used to explore trends and themes rather than to generalize to the population, as our sample size was too small to support the use of inferential statistics.

Results:  Our pilot study suggests that the execution of a randomized control trial with longitudinal data collection is feasible within a child welfare setting and among older foster youth.  Youth’s ability to identify caring adults in their lives varied, though two-thirds of the intervention youth were able to identify a natural mentor.  Although the youth and natural mentors who participated in C.A.R.E. reported high levels of satisfaction with the intervention, the recruitment and retention of natural mentors proved challenging.  In response, the following program modifications will be made prior to further testing the effectiveness of C.A.R.E.: (1) adding a program manager position, (2) reducing the number of program activities required by the natural mentors,  (3) using more creative and flexible means of communication between the interventionist and dyads, (4) providing more external supports to natural mentors, and (5) only enrolling in future studies youth in care who can identify caring adults as potential natural mentors.

Conclusion/Implications:  This study of intervention acceptability and feasibility yielded valuable data that support the continued refinement, delivery, and testing of a program with great promise for reaching youth at imminent risk of aging out of foster care, and identifying, supporting and nurturing their relationships to caring adults.