Objective: This study examines the effects of youth empowerment programs (YEPs) on the psychological empowerment of young people aging out of foster care. Method: We used a two-group, cross-sectional survey to examine the effect of YEP participation on the psychological empowerment of youths aging out of Florida’s foster care system. The study sample consisted of 193 young adults (99 YEP participants and 94 non-YEP participants), ages 18–24. Four dependent variables represented the 4 dimensions of psychological empowerment: perceived control, motivation to influence, sociopolitical skills, and participatory behavior. Results: YEP participants experienced significantly higher perceived control, motivation to influence their environments, self-efficacy, and participatory behavior than non-YEP participants even when controlling for age at program entry, gender, race, time in foster care, number of placements, and geographic location. Conclusions: Findings suggest that youth empowerment is possible in child welfare systems and may be beneficial to young people aging out of foster care. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

中文翻译：

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青年赋权计划对在寄养服务之外的年轻人的心理赋权的影响

目的：本研究探讨了青年赋权计划（YEPs）对因寄养而老化的年轻人的心理赋权的影响。方法：我们使用了两组横断面调查来检验YEP参与对从佛罗里达寄养系统中退休的年轻人的心理赋权的影响。该研究样本包括193岁的18-24岁的年轻人（99名YEP参与者和94名非YEP参与者）。四个因变量代表了心理授权的四个方面：感知的控制力，影响力的动机，社会政治技能和参与行为。结果：YEP参与者体验到明显更高的控制感，影响环境的动力，自我效能感，与非YEP参与者相比，即使在控制计划进入时的年龄，性别，种族，寄养时间，安置位置和地理位置等方面，参与行为也比非YEP参与者好。结论：研究结果表明，在儿童福利系统中增强青年权能是可能的，并且可能有益于因寄养而老化的年轻人。讨论了对政策和实践的影响。