Barriers to success experienced by former foster youth are well documented; however, missing is the full exploration of the experiences of ethnic minority foster youth. This qualitative exploratory study presents a hermeneutic thematic analysis of interviews conducted with eight youth, of varying ethnic and cultural backgrounds, who recently aged out of foster care in a largely rural southwestern state. For many participants, their definition of success differed markedly from mainstream measures of successful transition into adulthood. Major themes of participant interviews included; education, family, community, and financial struggles/work. Although both education and financial difficulties have been widely documented among former foster youth, the attention to family and community factors have not been fully explored. This qualitative study encourages an expanded view of how a successful transition to adulthood can be markedly different among ethnically diverse foster care alumni and encourages continued exploration into the needs of this population.

前寄养青年所经历的成功障碍有据可查；然而，缺少的是对少数民族寄养青年经历的充分探索。这项定性探索性研究对八名具有不同种族和文化背景的青年进行的访谈进行了诠释学主题分析，这些青年最近在一个主要是农村的西南州脱离了寄养家庭。对于许多参与者来说，他们对成功的定义与成功过渡到成年的主流衡量标准明显不同。参与者访谈的主要主题包括；教育、家庭、社区和经济困难/工作。尽管前寄养青年的教育和经济困难已被广泛记录，但对家庭和社区因素的关注尚未得到充分探讨。