Session: Attending to Place and Spatiality in the Healthy Development of Vulnerable Youth (Society for Social Work and Research 21st Annual Conference - Ensure Healthy Development for all Youth)

There has been growing attention to place and spatial issues in social work. Although researchers have demonstrated associations between disadvantaged neighborhoods and youth engagement in high-risk behaviors and delinquent/criminal activities (Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000; Mason & Mennis, 2010; Stiffman, Hadley-Ives, Elze, Johnson, & Dore, 1999), less attention has been paid to the longitudinal relationship between place, stability, and youth outcomes. The increasing availability of advanced analytic techniques provides helpful tools that can be used to effectively examine these associations.

For example, out-of-home placements for children and youth involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems cause emotional and physical disruptions, especially for children and youth who experience multiple placements. The consequent instability is likely to disrupt the receipt of mental health and substance use services, independent living services, and educational progress, and occur during a period when stability is crucial for healthy development. This symposium presents three papers that examine place and stability for vulnerable children and youth.

The first paper, Exploring the Impact of Geographic Instability of Children in Foster Care using Geographic Methods, explores the use of geographic methods in the child welfare literature about placement instability. The geographic disruption that a child faces in foster care is not often considered when a child is placed in foster care. Yet, the geographic disruption of multiple placements can inhibit a child’s ability to access and receive health care services. This paper proposes the use of geographic methods beyond Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to examine geographic disruptions associated with foster care placement.

The second paper, Longitudinal Patterns and Predictors of Secure Placement among Serious Adolescent Offenders, uses group-based trajectory modeling to identify patterns of secure placement during the transition to adulthood. Six patterns of secure placement over 7 years were identified. Youth from more socially disorganized, but not physically disorganized, neighborhoods were more likely to belong to groups with consistently moderate-to-high levels of secure placement in comparison to youth who remained in the community throughout the study period.

The third paper, Longitudinal Relationship between Future Orientation, Substance Use and Delinquency among African American and Latino Young Men, examines the reciprocal relationship between future orientation and risk behaviors. Future orientations are shaped by the possibilities youth observe within their neighborhoods. In turn, these future orientations are related to risk-behaviors. In this way, place contributes to the risk-behaviors of individual youth.

A lack of attention to place and spatiality can inadvertently contribute to processes of accumulating disadvantage for vulnerable populations. First, a lack of attention to geographic issues can contribute to ongoing placement instability.  Second, youth from neighborhoods that are more socially disorganized are more likely to experience consistently higher rates of secure placement, and this disruption contributes to instability in the lives of these youth. Third, future expectations are related to higher risk behaviors. Together, these three studies suggest that attending to these place and spatial issues may help contribute to the healthy development of these youth.