Navigating Relationships with Birth Family after Aging out of Foster Care

Introduction As of September 23, 2022, there were 24,288 foster youth with a case plan goal of long-term foster care and/or emancipation in the United States (U.S. DHHS, 2023). Exiting foster care without legal permanence may accelerate the risk of transitioning to adulthood without strong bonds to family. Research finds that a large percentage of young people who age out seek to reconnect with a birth parent after leaving foster care. Very little is known about these relationships or young people’s experiences engaging birth family in adulthood. This study explored two questions: (1) What are the ways that young people who age out of foster care navigate relationships with birth family? (2) What do they say about their relationships?

Methods This study draws from the Fostering Healthy Futures study, which included 10 cohorts of children (N=515)from 2002-2011 who were living in foster care (Taussig et al., 2007). In the current study, we examine a subset of 215 participants who were re-interviewed between the ages 18-22, nearly a decade after their baseline interview. Within this group, 57 (26.5%) had not achieved permanency by the age of 18 and were identified as having aged out of care. The current study focuses on responses to two open ended questions in the survey, which asked: (1) Since you turned 18, have you made any attempts to reconnect with any members of your biological family? If so, tell us about that; and (2) How would you describe your current relationship with your biological parents? Responses to these questions were analyzed by three team members using a three-step process for identifying themes in the data.

Results The analysis identified three patterns in contact and degree of relationship with birth family. There were those who reported:(1) ‘Always Connected and Currently in a Relationship’ (n=8); (2) ‘Not Reconnected and not Interested in a Relationship’ (n=9), and (3) Reconnected & Navigating Relationships.’ Three participants had missing responses.

Discussion & Implications The findings suggest that a majority of the sample reconnected with birth parents and/or extended family after foster care. A much smaller proportion reported that they had not re-engaged with any family. Regardless of whether they had a relationship, reconnected or did not reconnect, the findings suggest that navigating relationships with birth families could be complex. Our discussion places study findings into a context of growing calls to re-examine policy approaches for promoting permanence in foster care.