Older youth preparing to emancipate from the foster care system are often served in residential treatment settings where they have limited opportunities to practice skills for independent living in a community setting. Stepping these youth down to less restrictive environments such as treatment foster care is a growing trend, especially for youth with mental health issues. Yet, few studies have...

Youth transitioning out of foster care face significant medical and mental health care needs. Unfortunately, these youth rarely receive the services they need because of lack of health insurance. Through many policies and programs, the federal government has taken steps to support older youth in foster care and those aging out. The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act o...

This study examined the extent to which the academic achievement of adolescents receiving both foster care and special education services differs from the performance of youths involved in only foster care, special education, or general education. Extant school data were collected on 327 students, ages 13 through 21, who attended school in a large urban school district in Oregon. The study also...

We use administrative data to examine the temporal relationship between maternal incarceration and foster care placement among incarcerated mothers and their children in Cook County, Illinois. We also compare the discharge outcomes of foster children whose mothers were incarcerated to the discharge outcomes of all foster children in Illinois. We found that more than three quarters of the childr...

a r t i c l e i n f o Youth in the foster care system are more likely to be diagnosed with mental illness than those in the general population. Within this system, youth with antisocial behavior (e.g., aggressive, oppositional) are overrepresented. The challenges youth with antisocial behavior present to foster care systems make understanding the factors that predict remission in this populatio...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the lifetime and past year prevalence rates of major psychiatric disorders in a sample of older youths in the foster care system, to examine the timing of disorder onset and system entry, and to explore variations in past year prevalence rates. METHOD Using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for DSM-IV, interviews were conducted with 373 17-year-old youths (90% of those e...

Institutional rearing of young children has been demonstrated to increase risk for a broad range of psychiatric disorders and other impairments. This has led many countries to consider or to invest in foster care. However, no study to date has explored potential differences in psychiatric symptoms in children placed in different types of foster care. We assessed internalizing disorders, externa...

Every child and youth who enters the foster care system has a goal of finding a permanent home, also known as “permanency.” The child welfare professionals work to achieve this permanency goal by reunifying the child with their parents or finding another permanent connection, such as adoption or legal guardianship. While permanency is a goal for all children in foster care, recent statistics sh...

Despite an overall increase in college attendance, low-income youth and particularly those in the foster care system are less likely to attend college (Wolanin, 2005). Although youth in foster care report high educational aspirations, as little as 4% obtain a 4-year college degree (Nixon & Jones, 2007). The purpose of this study is to explore differences in educational aspirations and expectati...