Benefits of Keeping Youth In Foster Care During Transition to Adulthood
Chapin Hall
Presented here are the first two waves of findings from the Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth, a longitudinal study of youth aging out of foster care and transitioning to adulthood in Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois.
Outcomes at Age 19 is based on survey data collected during follow-up interviews with 603 of the 736 youth from whom baseline data were collected in the first wave.
The study compares the outcomes of the 282 young adults who were still in care at age 19 to the outcomes of the 321 who had already been discharged.
It also compares the study's sample of young adults to a nationally representative sample of 19-year-olds from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.
The results suggest that youth making the transition from foster care to young adulthood face a number of significant challenges, including educational deficits, mental health problems, economic insecurity, victimization, and early child-bearing.
