Comparing the Educational Attainment of Maltreated Adolescents Who Emancipated and Reunified from Foster Care

Background and Purpose

Although the association between emancipating from foster care and low educational attainment has been largely studied, most studies do not utilize meaningful comparison groups. Research typically compares foster care youth to their peers in the general population. Although this is an important comparison to identify because it illustrates the educational vulnerabilities of the foster care population, it fails to compare foster care youth to their peers with similar maltreatment and foster care backgrounds. It is not clear if the educational vulnerabilities of emancipated youth persists once they are compared to youth with similar maltreatment and foster care backgrounds. Additionally, little is known about how youth who emancipate compare to their peers who were reunified with their families after placement in foster care. Approximately 50 % of youth exit foster care to reunification annually but researchers rarely investigate what happens to these youth when they return home and do not subsequently enter foster care again. This study aimed to address these gaps within the existing knowledge base by determining whether youth who emancipate from foster care have lower odds of educational attainment than youth who reunify with their families after placement in foster care.

Methods

This study used data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being I (NSCAW-I). A total of 154 adolescents (ages 11-15) reported to Child Protective Services (CPS) for maltreatment were included in the study. Educational attainment was measured from the youths’ self-report of having either a high school diploma or General Education Diploma (GED) at Wave 5, when the youth were 18-21 years of age. This study controlled for key child and child welfare characteristics. Data for these variables were all collected at Wave 1 from the youth and their primary caregivers. Logistic regression analysis was used to compare the odds of educational attainment for youth who emancipated from care to those who reunified with their families.

Findings

Results indicated that 53.9% (n = 84) of all the youth in the study completed their education. Emancipation was associated with higher odds of educational attainment than reunification with families, Wald X2 = 4.37, df = 1¸ p ≤ .05. The odds of completing a high school education was 2.4 times higher for youth who emancipated from foster care than for youth who reunified with their families.

Conclusion and Implications

Although rates of educational are not optimal (53.9 %), this study found that the odds of completing a high school education are higher for youth who emancipate than for youth who reunify with their families. This finding identifies an educational vulnerability within youth who reunify with their families. Although the youth achieve permanency with their families, this does not mean that their families are able to foster optimal well-being and support their educational attainment. Ongoing supports and interventions may be needed for youth who reunify with their families to support their educational attainment.