"Education Is a Way out. It's a Way to a Better Place.": College Engagement and Indicators of Persistence Among Former Foster Youth Students

Background and Purpose: College completion has been associated with a host of positive psychosocial indicators, including reduced reliance on government assistance, reduced justice system involvement, and increased family and economic stability. Former foster youth are less likely to complete a 4-year college degree than their peers and are more likely to utilize government assistance, have higher rates of justice system involvement, and have lower rates of family or economic stability. Many barriers related to access, persistence, and retention exist for former foster youth students, leading to lower rates of enrollment and college completion. While legislative and campus support services have attempted to address these barriers, sparse research exists to confirm the impact these programs have on increasing completion rates for former foster youth students. This study examines the experiences of former foster youth students who have completed 4-year degrees to determine how these students utilized campus and personal resources in order to successfully complete college.

Methods: Ten former foster youth participated in semi-structured telephone interviews which asked about campus support, relationships with peers/staff/faculty, and off-campus life experiences during their undergraduate college experience. Participants were recruited from across the United States and represented diversity in age (23 - 45 years), institutional type (community college, public university, private university), gender (7 ciswomen, 2 cismen, 1 transman), and race (5 White, 4 Black, 1 Latinx). All interviews were transcribed and analyzed using a three-step approach suited to narrative analysis. Through use of developing case summaries, eco-mapping, and employing cross case analysis, the researcher found indicators of resilience and campus engagement/disengagement.

Results: Participants in this study demonstrated both indicators of internal and/or external resilience. Examples of such indicators included deep motivations to succeed academically despite overwhelming non-academic circumstances, selective engagement of supportive resources on campus, connection with on-campus or off-campus mentors, and reliance on peer relationships for support. Most participants described being motivated to succeed in college as an opportunity to avoid the variety of negative outcomes they had seen their families, peers, or previous generations of former foster youth experience. Some participants described receiving mentorship from faculty, staff, or off-campus adults and finding this support motivating. However, most participants also described barriers to forming relationships with peers and faculty/staff and engaging on-campus as the result of fearing stigma based on their experiences as foster youth. This fear of stigma led to isolation, help-seeking avoidance, or reduced engagement in campus life. Participants who engaged in identity-based support (1^stgeneration or low SES focus) reported better campus engagement.

Conclusions and Implications: Former foster youth students face significant barriers to accessing and attending college. Fearing stigma because of their experiences as foster youth can cause students to avoid forming supportive relationships on-campus. This leads to increased feelings of isolation and reduced help-seeking behavior, which can greatly influence their ability to persist. Helping professionals on- and off-campus should be aware of the impact of stigma on help-seeking behaviors for FFY students, providing services with these considerations in mind. Identity-based support may help prevent feelings of isolation in these students.