According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, children have the right to voice their opinions and participate in decision-making in matters affecting their lives. Furthermore, professionals working with children have the responsibility to always make the best interests of the child the priority when contemplating decisions that have an impact on the child, including by ensuring

Transition-age youth with foster care involvement (TAY, ages 17–22) are at heightened risk for suicidal behavior. Despite this, mental health screenings are not standardized across child welfare (CW) systems and existing assessment tools are not designed for use with this specific population. As such, TAY are unlikely to be adequately screened for suicide risk and connected with needed services. In

Purpose: Adolescents in residential treatment (RT) encounter multiple obstacles upon discharge that can make maintaining treatment gains in the community challenging. This study examined relationships among parenting (sense of competence, practices), household chaos, and adolescent behavior problems in a sample of parents with adolescents in RT. Method: This exploratory cross-sectional study used convenience

This paper highlights findings from the first phase of an ongoing qualitative Youth Participatory Acton Research (YPAR) study with a group of students with foster care experience at a large public university in the Northeastern United States. The first phase of data collection consisted of a focus group designed and carried out by co-researchers, amongst themselves. Data was analyzed in two ways, by

Each year, approximately 20,000 youth in foster care transition to adulthood and independent living. A majority of these young people want to pursue postsecondary education, but they are less likely to enroll in postsecondary institutions than their peers who have not interacted with the child welfare system. To address this gap, federal and state programs have been implemented to address barriers

Employment is identified as a key factor that supports emerging adult Black men in reentry with making a successful the transition to adulthood. Although anti-Black racism creates barriers to them securing and maintaining legitimate employment, strength-based, education-focused alternative schools that are structured to meet their intersectional needs and experiences can help to promote their transition

Young adults aging out of the foster care system have received a good deal of attention over the years from policymakers, child welfare practitioners and researchers. Despite these efforts, youth aging out of the foster care system continue to have well-documented challenges when transitioning to adulthood. In this cross-sectional comparative study, we assess the outcomes of emancipated youth after

The purpose of this qualitative research study is to explore ways Black women college students with experiences in the foster care system construct meaning of their foster care experiences, and how these experiences have influenced their higher education experiences, and the current status of their racial identity development. Using semi-structured interviews, the participant’s narratives are constructed

Campus-based support programs serve an important function for students who have experienced foster care at some point in their lives, often providing necessary supports to students so that they can be successful in a college setting. These programs offer supports that aid in student retention and completion of degrees, thus increasing their chances for better outcomes later in life. One area which

Students with a foster care background experience significant disparity in enrollment and postsecondary completion when compared to their peers without foster care experience. A number of barriers exist that may impact college persistence and completion. Finances and inadequate financial aid are often identified as a primary concern for students with a foster care background who are attending college

Transitioning to adulthood is difficult for young people aging out of foster care. Research shows that this population faces substantial challenges in trying to avoid legal system involvement during this difficult period of life. Seeking to improve our understanding of the protective factors that mitigate the risks of legal system involvement among transition-age foster youth, this study focuses on

Prior suicide attempt serves as one of the strongest predictors of future suicide attempt and risk for death by suicide among youth. Disparities, however, persist in determining which groups have access to services following an attempt. Thus, we compare the experiences of Black youth with a history of lifetime suicide attempt to youth from other race groups who also attempted suicide in efforts to

There is limited research examining the mental and emotional challenges, social support systems, and coping strategies of Muslim Rohingya refugee adolescents in the United States. The Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority group from Myanmar are considered one of the world’s largest stateless populations. This in-depth qualitative study among Muslim Rohingya adolescents aged 12–17 who reside in Chicago

Supportive housing (SH), largely consisting of Transitional Living Programs (TLPs) and Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH), is the primarly intervention being applied to the one-in-ten young adults that experience homelessness in the United States each year. To date, efforts to understand the perception of these programs among young adult tenants have focused singularly on TLPs or PSH. The current qualitative

Purpose Foster children may be at risk for challenges in different developmental domains. In this study we investigated 48 Norwegian foster children’s executive functioning, school achievement, and adjustment at age 8 years compared with 37 children in a comparison group, as well as associations between executive functioning and school achievement and adjustment. Method Using multiple informants, children’s

This descriptive study sought to explore how child welfare agencies and community partner organizations experienced and adapted service provision for immigrant children and families during the COVID-19 pandemic. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were completed with 31 child welfare agency practitioners and community partners in 11 states who work with immigrant clients or on immigration related

Purpose Subjective wellbeing (SWB) is a significant contributor to quality of life and overall wellbeing in childhood through adulthood. However, less is known about the modifiable factors that support SWB among urban children. This study explored the association between socio-ecological factors (family, peers, and neighborhood) and child SWB. Method A convenience sample of 69 students were recruited

Children and adolescents in residential care often present with emotional and/or behavioral problems associated to previous adverse experiences such as abuse and neglect. Consequently, child welfare systems have developed therapeutic residential care (TRC) programs to address the most complex needs of this population. The aim of this study is to explore the characteristics of youths in TRC comparing

Purpose Positive parenting and parental skill building are associated with child well-being and can be enhanced through community-based parenting interventions. Although parenting intervention access and participation are influenced by individual and community-level factors, little is known about how social norms around parenting predict support for parenting interventions and parenting programs. To

This study examined the career transition journey of educationally disadvantaged young women from a recognition perspective in the context of risk society. By means of purposive sampling, 12 young women aged between 18 and 24 who had dropped out from junior or senior secondary school were sampled basing on their social status and family’s socioeconomic status. With the use of thematic analysis, the

With notable and growing exceptions, there is a dearth of research on mechanisms by which youth in foster care build resilience and achieve positive outcomes. We report on data from an interview study with young adults exiting or recently exited foster care in Maryland (N=15) designed to understand what facilitates their engagement with courts. Our findings indicate that despite challenges of ?being

Purpose: While many studies address immigrant integration, few focus on the adjustment process for unaccompanied immigrant children in foster care in the United States- and even fewer look at community level prevention and intervention strategies for positive youth adjustment. This study uses a human rights framework to examine community level facilitators- both prevention and interventions- that aid

Children in foster care in the United States face unique challenges related to access to health and education services. With the COVID-19 pandemic, many of those services were temporarily disrupted, adding burden to an already strained system. This observational study describes the experiences of licensed and kinship caregivers (N = 186) during the peak of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders and as restrictions

This paper is a direct response to a recent article in this journal by Gass et al. (JAMA 39: 291–302) in which the authors describe an “ethical” model for the involuntary transport of youth into Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare programs, often synonymously referred to as wilderness therapy in the literature. These authors suggest that international law supports involuntary transport and that their approach

International literature suggests that many young people transitioning from government care become parents before age 21, characteristically termed ‘early parenting’, at least in the English-speaking world. Yet there is only limited knowledge of the factors that lead to this challenging responsibility. This paper presents findings from a qualitative study of service providers’ experiences working with

A growing body of research has begun to examine the implications of police contact for youth. Largely emphasizing serious police contact (arrest, court involvement, and incarceration), this scholarship has generally found that police contact is associated with negative health and educational outcomes. In this study, we build on this work by examining the implications of direct and vicarious police

Youth and young adults with a history of out-of-home care are at the center of a constellation of factors associated with young parenthood, including experiences of maltreatment, caregiver and school instability, poor access to preventive health care, and high rates of mental health problems. Although correlates of early parenthood among this population have been examined, few studies have examined

Expectant or parenting youth (EPY) with foster care histories are often in need of a range of services yet experience barriers to accessing and utilizing those services. This exploratory qualitative study was informed by ecological systems theory and utilized interviews and focus groups with EPY (n = 11) and service providers (n = 28) to identify factors that facilitate service utilization for EPY

The number of children affected by family dissolution is increasing worldwide. Beneficially, a growing number of both parents desire to remain active in their children’s lives, favouring the practice of shared care. Unfortunately, this has introduced new dilemmas that can negatively impact children’s well-being. One example is the controversial topic of travelling children, who have become ‘visitors’

This article reports on one of the objectives of a larger study aiming at the development of an adolescent risk-behavior management program for foster parents. The objective relevant to this article entailed the exploration of parenting behaviors and attitudes of parents fostering adolescents presenting with risk behavior. The respondents were recruited from the clientele of designated welfare organizations