Differences in Satisfaction and Perceived Benefit of Foster Care: Insights from Calyouth Study Participants

Background and Purpose. Satisfaction data collected from young people about their experiences in foster care show between 50-80% report that being placed in out-of-home care was helpful or satisfactory (Courtney et al., 2014; Taussig & Munson, 2022). Longitudinal and retrospective research suggests that youths’ beliefs about the quality and utility of child welfare services can change between adolescence and early adulthood (Roberts et al., 2022; Wilson et al., 2020) and may differ for some subsets of care-experienced young people (Arabi, 2020; Dunn et al., 2010). The current study examines CalYOUTH participants’ general satisfaction with foster care while they were in care and after leaving, and tests whether satisfaction varies by youth characteristics.

Methods. We used youth survey data from CalYOUTH, a representative longitudinal study of transition-age foster youth (TAY) in California. The surveys asked about youths’ current satisfaction with their foster care experience at age 17 (in 2013; n=726) and retrospective satisfaction when they were age 21 (in 2017; n=615) and 23 (in 2019; n=620). For each wave, we generated two sets of binary outcomes: (1) whether youth are generally satisfied with their foster care experience and (2) whether they are generally dissatisfied with their foster care experience. We reported descriptive statistics on youths’ satisfaction and conducted bivariate analyses to identify statistically significant differences by youth characteristics. Survey weights were used to account for the study’s sampling design.

Results. Overall, more than half of TAY in California were satisfied with their foster care experience at age 17 (56%), 21 (55%), and 23 (58%). Less than a quarter of youth were dissatisfied with their foster care experience at age 17 (24%), 21 (24%), and 23 (22%). Bivariate analyses showed statistically significant (p<.05) subgroup differences. For instance, at age 23, youth who self-identify as completely heterosexual reported higher satisfaction with their foster care experience (60%) than youth with minority sexual preferences (49%). Youth without mental health symptoms expressed greater foster care satisfaction at ages 21 (60%) and 23 (62%) than youth with mental health symptoms (46% at age 21 and 49% at age 23). Parenting youth were more likely to be dissatisfied with their foster care experience (23% and 18% at ages 17 and 23) than non-parenting youth (38% and 26%). At age 17, youth who identified as multiracial/ethnic (15%) and Asian/Pacific Islander/Native Americans/ Alaska Natives (13%) were less dissatisfied with their foster care experience than White (29%), Black (30%), and Hispanic youth (22%). However, we did not find other significant differences across racial/ethnic sub-groups at ages 21 and 23.

Conclusions. While more than half of TAY in California showed general satisfaction with their current and previous foster care system experience, our bivariate analyses identify several sub-groups who were less satisfied, including parenting youth, those with minority sexual preferences, and those with mental health concerns. These findings highlight the need to understand youth voice as a dynamic and multifaceted source of information within equity work and systems change efforts and have important implications for tailoring supports offered to TAY in foster care.