Stepping Down and Stepping In: Youth's Perspectives on Making the Transition from Residential Treatment to Treatment Foster Care

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 explored the youth's perspective on making this transition. This study utilized qualitative interviews with youths who were participating in a treatment foster care intervention study (n = 8) to gain their perspectives on the process of transitioning from residential care. Youths were interviewed right before they exited residential care and two months after placement in the new foster home. Youths reported hopes for gaining family in the new home as well as fears of placement disruption. Findings point to the need to enlist youths in discussion and problem solving about difficulties they anticipate in the new home and expectations for their relationship with the new foster parents. In addition, the struggles described after two months in the home point to the need for youths to build specific skills to better manage ongoing relationships with foster parents and for foster parent training on how to help build these skills.     

Children in Educational Residential Care: A Cohort Study of Israeli Youth

Abstract

This article reports preliminary findings from a national cohort study in Israel on the educational outcomes of 82,342 Jewish citizens born in 1981. We compare the educational outcomes of 2002 alumni of youth villages and their peers in the general population with respect to differences among cultural subgroups. The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics generated the database by combining different official data files based on a personal identification number that each Israeli citizen receives. This database covers the entire cohort and includes information on their background and educational status. The findings indicate that the educational status of alumni of youth villages at the age of 27 is less positive compared to that of their peers in the general population. Cultural differences are discussed with respect to the role of youth villages as a means for upward mobility of disadvantaged youth, and implications for policy and future research are suggested.     

Sense of meaningfulness,sources of meaning,and self-evaluation of economically disadvantaged youth in Hong Kong: implications for youth development programs

This study aimed to explore the direction of youth development programs for economically disadvantaged youth by examining how their sense of meaningfulness and sources of meaning were associated with self-evaluation. Based on a survey design of 373 low-income Chinese adolescents recruited from five schools located in districts with the highest percentages of low-income households in Hong Kong, the results indicate a positive association between their sense of meaningfulness and self-evaluation. The findings also show that the intrinsic sources of meaning (individualism, collectivism, and self-transcendence) were positively associated with self-esteem. The results suggest that extrinsic aspirations were not a major source of positive self-evaluation of Hong Kong Chinese adolescents living in low-income families. On the contrary, they derived life meaning from various intrinsic sources. Their perception of the intrinsic sources of meaning and sense of meaningfulness worked jointly to affect their self-evaluation. Given the value of existential meaning in youth development under economic hardship, practitioners and educators should work with low-income adolescents’ life process of awareness in order to bring them to the possibilities for richer and deeper experiences for personal development, relationship enhancement, community participation, and spirituality enrichment. They should also initiate comprehensive life skills training in all formal, nonformal and informal learning contexts.     

Foster youth emancipating from care: caseworkers' reports on needs and services

This article presents findings from a survey mailed to caseworkers, who answered questions about special needs, independent living skills, educational attainment, and services for 416 randomly selected foster youth in Illinois. A third of the adolescents had a mental health disorder, developmental disability, or other special need that their caseworkers believed would interfere with their ability to live independently. Additionally, urban youth were underserved relative to other youth. Youth with more behavior problems and educational and job skill deficits were less likely than other youth to continue to receive child welfare services past age 18, suggesting that services must be provided throughout adolescence to meet the needs of the most vulnerable clients.     

Does Telephone Audio Computer-Assisted Self-Interviewing Improve the Accuracy of Prevalence Estimates of Youth Smoking? Evidence from the UMass Tobacco Study

Despite their advantage for obtaining representative samplesof adolescents, telephone surveys have been regarded as an inferiormethod for collecting data on youth tobacco use because theyyield lower estimates than school-based, self-administered surveys.Although no gold standard for smoking estimates exists, thelower estimates in telephone surveys have been attributed tounderreporting due to youths’ concern that parents orothers may overhear their responses. Telephone audio computer-assistedself-interviewing (T-ACASI) is a cost-effective method for obtaininga representative sample of youths and provides increased privacyfor the respondent. We hypothesize that using T-ACASI wouldencourage youths to report more fully smoking behavior comparedto traditional interviewer-administered telephone methods. Ouranalysis further assesses whether respondent age, gender, race/ethnicity,and parental attitude toward smoking moderated the relationshipbetween survey mode and smoking reports. Using data from a statewidetobacco use survey that randomly assigned youth respondentsto either T-ACASI or interviewer-administered modes, we findthat youths were more likely to report smoking behaviors inT-ACASI mode and that this was especially true for girls, particularlythose who believed their parents would disapprove strongly oftheir smoking. The findings suggest that traditional telephonesurveys may underestimate smoking prevalence in most girls bya factor of two, and that a technique for ensuring privacy forthese respondents is an important component of effective telephonesurvey methodology.     

The Impact of Neighborhood Factors on Mental Health and Academic Outcomes for Adolescents Participating in the Prodigy Program

The Prodigy Cultural Arts program provides art classes embedded with three types of self-regulation skills (problem solving, social skills, and anger management) in an after school community setting to at-risk youths. Empirical evidence supports the effectiveness of self-regulation skills programs and the arts in programs for at-risk youths, yet the impact of the environment on the youth participants is often ignored. This study examines neighborhood structural characteristics along with previously identified individual, mental health variables in school outcomes for adolescents attending the Prodigy Program. Findings suggest that neighborhood structural characteristics have some influence in program outcomes. Limitations of the study and future research are discussed.     

Increasing Opportunities for Inner-City Youth: The Feasibility of an Economic Empowerment Model in East Harlem and the South Bronx, New York

Youth of color are disproportionately likely to grow-up in poor, disadvantaged neighborhoods characterized by high levels of psychosocial stressors and inadequate supportive resources. Poverty and racial minority status correlate with an increased risk of high-school dropout, teen pregnancy, substance abuse, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Given these trends, child welfare researchers are developing various interventions to increase the protective resources and social opportunities available to youth of color. This article reports results of a preliminary, qualitative study that investigated the feasibility and acceptability of an economic empowerment intervention in the South Bronx and East Harlem, New York. Using focus groups and brief questionnaires with youth and their parents/guardians (N = 24 dyads), we explored attitudes toward youth educational savings accounts, financial planning classes, and mentorship for inner-city youth. Findings indicate a strong interest in an economic empowerment intervention among adolescents and their caregivers in these communities. These findings have implications for the design of larger-scale research programs that aim to improve inner-city youth's socio-economic wellbeing using economic empowerment models.     

The academic achievement of socioeconomically disadvantaged immigrant adolescents: a social capital perspective

A sizable body of literature reports that social capital, derived from relational resources embedded in micro social contexts, is crucial for student achievement. This study aimed to examine whether this applies as well to socioeconomically disadvantaged immigrant adolescents in the US. In so doing, the study first identified the types of relational features that were strongly associated with immigrant adolescents’ academic achievement, before exploring how high- and low-achieving immigrant adolescents coming from similarly socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds differed in terms of these relational features. To this end, the study used the dataset of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS). There was a significantly positive association found between academic achievement and a number of positive characteristics of social relationships with friends and teachers. In addition, a significant disparity in these relational features was found between high and low achievers among the socioeconomically disadvantaged. The findings illuminate the salience of peer contexts and of interpersonal trust in shaping immigrant adolescents’ educational outcomes in a way that transcends socioeconomic boundaries. It is pertinent for educators and policy-makers to empower immigrant youth as independent agents capable of generating academically relevant social capital on their own outside their families and ethnic communities.     

Mothering and Peer Associations Mediate Cumulative Risk Effects for Latino Youth

The present study examined whether positive parenting and deviant peer associations mediated the relations between a cumulative risk composite comprising financial strain, neighborhood problems, and maternal psychological distress and subsequent youth adjustment problems. Drawn from the Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three City Study, the sample consisted of 449 economically disadvantaged Latino families. Structural equation modeling showed that after controlling for baseline levels of youth adjustment problems, cumulative risk, assessed when adolescents were 10 to 14 years old, was directly and indirectly predictive of youths’ deviant peer associations 16 months later, through mother’s positive parenting. Deviant peer associations, in turn, were proximally associated with youth externalizing and internalizing problems. Findings underscore the role of mothers and peers in Latino youth adjustment problems.     

Promoting autonomous functioning among youth in care: a program evaluation

Over the past few years, considerable research has highlighted the challenges posed by social reinsertion of youth. For youth who leave an alternative living environment at the outset of adulthood, this integration is all the more difficult on account of psychosocial and health factors and a lack of support in preparing for independent living and employment requirements. Although they possess various qualifications and resources for making this difficult transition, many find themselves relying on public-funded services as they enter adulthood. After a brief outline of the contextual organization of youth protection offered in Quebec, the author presents an intervention program that aims to prepare youth in high-risk categories for social reintegration and independent living. This is followed by a presentation of preliminary results stemming from a three-year pilot study and an outline for intervention and support for troubled youths who are entering adulthood.     

An empirical test of a model of academic expectations among youth in residential care

In the last decade accumulating evidence across many countries points to the poor educational outcomes of youth formerly placed in care and their under-representation in higher education. Academic expectations in late adolescence are considered a key marker for educational attainments in young adulthood. Although these expectations were studied extensively, they have seldom been examined among youth in substitute care. The goal of the present research was to develop and test a model to predict academic expectations of Israeli adolescents placed in residential facilities. The study sample consisted of 1360 adolescents from 34 youth villages who responded to self-report questionnaires tapping their academic expectations, current academic achievements and various aspects of their family, school and facility's environment, expected to be associated with their academic expectations.Structural equation modeling indicated that parents' level of education was indirectly related to youths' expectations, an association mediated by youth's current academic achievements and parents' aspirations for their children's educational success. Higher levels of teacher and staff support were also found to contribute to higher academic expectations; however, whereas teacher support effects were mediated by youth achievements, staff support was found to have direct, as well as moderating effects, on achievement-expectations relationship.The findings suggest the importance of an integrative approach in the efforts to promote educational expectations among adolescents in residential facilities. Such an approach, encompassing the multiple adult functions responsible for youth development within such settings, could be an important step in enhancing the chances for future academic success of this vulnerable group.     

Step-Up: Promoting Youth Mental Health and Development in Inner-City High Schools

African American and Latino youth who reside in inner-city communities are at heightened risk for compromised mental health, as their neighborhoods are too often associated with serious stressors, including elevated rates of poverty, substance abuse, community violence, as well as scarce youth-supportive resources, and mental health care options. Many aspects of disadvantaged urban contexts have the potential to thwart successful youth development. Adolescents with elevated mental health needs may experience impaired judgment, poor problem-solving skills, and conflictual interpersonal relationships, resulting in unsafe sexual behavior and drug use. However, mental health services are frequently avoided by urban adolescents who could gain substantial benefit from care. Thus, the development of culturally sensitive, contextually relevant and effective services for urban, low-income African American and Latino adolescents is critical. Given the complexity of the mental health and social needs of urban youth, novel approaches to service delivery may need to consider individual (i.e., motivation to succeed in the future), family (i.e., adult support within and outside of the family), and community-level (i.e., work and school opportunities) clinical components. Step-Up, a high school-based mental health service delivery model has been developed to bolster key family, youth and school processes related to youth mental health and positive youth development. Step-Up (1) intervenes with urban minority adolescents across inner-city ecological domains; (2) addresses multiple levels (school, family and community) in order to target youth mental health difficulties; and (3) provides opportunities for increasing youth social problem-solving and life skills. Further, Step-Up integrates existing theory-driven, evidence-based interventions. This article describes Step-Up clinical goals, theoretical influences, as well as components and key features, and presents preliminary data on youth engagement for two cohorts of students.     

Predictors of aggression among Palestinians in Israel and Gaza: Happiness,need to belong,and self-control

The present study examined a strong need for belonging (sensitivity to social rejection) as a risk factor and happiness and self-control skills as protective factors in predicting peer-directed aggression among 292 Israeli Palestinian Arab adolescents and 398 Gazan Palestinian Arab adolescents of similar ages (mean ~ 14 years). Findings demonstrated that the two Palestinian groups showed similar aggression rates, but Israeli Palestinians revealed higher self-control, higher happiness, and higher need for belonging than their Gazan peers. Moreover, each of the three predictors, separately, was significantly linked to aggression for the Israelis but not for the Gazans. Possible explanations are discussed related to sex, cultural differences, and life conditions.     

Loneliness,the search for meaning,and the psychological well-being of economically disadvantaged Chinese adolescents living in Hong Kong: Implications for life skills development programs

Assuming a relational basis of meaning-making, we examined ways in which the search for meaning and loneliness relate to the psychological well-being of economically disadvantaged adolescents. Using a survey with a sample of 366 economically disadvantaged adolescents and 304 non-economically disadvantaged adolescents recruited from 10 schools in Hong Kong, we observed that the search for meaning had a positive association with self-esteem, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction only among economically disadvantaged adolescents, whereas loneliness had a negative association with those indicators of psychological well-being in the entire sample. We also identified an interaction effect between the search for meaning and loneliness on life satisfaction among economically disadvantaged adolescents. Our results partially supported our hypotheses by showing that loneliness and the search for meaning jointly affected the development of economically disadvantaged adolescents, whereas loneliness was a more significant predictor than the search for meaning. Given such functions of the search for meaning and sense of belongingness in the development of young people amid economic hardship, practitioners and educators should initiate meaning- and relationship-oriented life skills programs in the formal and non-formal learning contexts, as well as facilitate young people's search for meaning in the informal learning context.     

Adverse Life Experiences and Homelessness Among Adolescents: an examination of the conditions for convergence

Abstract

There are two factors that limit our knowledge of the risk factors associated with homelessness among runaway adolescents, namely (1) the samples used are often composed of youth homeless service users and/or youths living on the streets (visible homelessness), whereas most adolescents in fact use “private” resources (hidden homelessness), and (2) failure to use an adequate control group to identify risk factors associated specifically with homelessness. Our study compares the characteristics of two groups of youths under the supervision oftheyouth protection system, according to the presence or absence of periods of homelessness. The results throw light on the factors underlying the shiftfrom “at risk” to “homeless”, showing that youths with experience of homelessness are more likely to have been placed in substitute home environments, have experienced significant relationship difficulties with one of their parents (deterioration ofthe parent/youth relationship and parental abuse) and to have been diagnosed with behavioral disorders. The findings suggest that the decision to place young people under supervision is based more on the dynamic between risk factors rather than on the existence of behavioral problems.     

Future expectations of adolescents in residential care in Israel

The study examines the future expectations of adolescents in residential care facilities in Israel and their worries about the pending transition to independent living. The study examines the hypotheses that personal variables (e.g., gender, a personality trait of optimism) and social support variables (the support of family, peers and staff) predict their future expectations. 277 adolescents participated in the study. The self report questionnaire covered several areas including demographic background, optimism, family, peer and staff support, readiness to leave care and future expectations. Results indicate that most adolescents perceived their future positively. The most positive expectations were in the family and friends domains. About a third of the adolescents were worried or very worried about leaving care. Worries were not related to gender. Optimism, social support by mother and peers (but not staff) was positively correlated with future expectations. The findings suggest that there are areas of concern that should be addressed through programs to prepare youth for leaving care. Follow up and longitudinal studies are suggested.     

Identity Patterns among Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel: Assimilation vs. Ethnic Formation

This paper deals with identity patterns among the 1990s immigrants from the former Soviet Union (FSU) in Israel. It presents the complex set of identity types among immigrants in the context of their cultural and socio-demographic characteristics and their dynamic relationships with the Israeli host society.
The findings show that immigrants from the FSU in Israel form a distinct ethnic group within the Israeli social and cultural fabric. This is reflected in their closed social networks, ethnic information sources, strong desire to maintain ethnic-cultural continuity, and the fact that the ethnic component (Jew from the FSU or immigrant from the FSU) is central for self-identification. However, ethnic formation among these immigrants is not a reactive-oriented identity, which is mainly generated by alienation from the host society, it is rather an instrumentalized ethnicity, which is the outcome of ethnic-cultural pride and pragmatic considerations.     

Reducing inequality summer by summer: Lessons from an evaluation of the Boston Summer Youth Employment Program

Many U.S. cities have implemented Summer Youth Employment Programs (SYEPs) with the hope of improving long-term behavioral, academic, and economic outcomes among program participants, particularly inner-city, low-income, and non-white youth. While recent empirical studies show positive impacts for some outcomes, little is known about program mechanisms and the potential to reduce inequality across groups. Using an embedded randomized control trial, this study evaluates improvements in short-term outcomes for the Boston SYEP based on survey data collected for both treatment and control groups during the summers of 2015, 2016, and 2017. Participants reported increases in community engagement and social skills, job readiness skills, and college aspirations that were significantly different from the control group. In most cases, the largest gains were observed for non-white youth suggesting that the program may have the capacity to reduce inequality across groups. Our hope is that this article will serve as a resource for those seeking to understand how summer jobs programs work and for whom, and to use these findings to strengthen and target the SYEP intervention. We also provide practical lessons learned regarding the development and deployment of our survey instrument to both the treatment and control groups among the youth population.     

Effects of Photovoice: Civic Engagement Among Older Youth in Urban Communities

Youth civic engagement is critical to many community empowerment initiatives. Photovoice is a popular empowerment technique for disenfranchised groups, including youth. The technique has little published empirical support. This research assesses Photovoice as a youth mobilization project within the context of an ongoing community development initiative. It was hypothesized that Photovoice participation would (a) improve students' interest in civic engagement and (b) have greater impact on older rather than younger adolescents. Thirty-three (33) youths (15–21 years of age) completed a Survey of Youth Engagement before and after Photovoice participation. Results indicate a main effect for age, with youths 18 years of age and older scoring significantly higher than youths under 18 years of age. This study suggests that Photovoice promotes significant changes in perceived civic engagement among older youths.     

Youth aging out of residential care in Israel: Readiness for independent living and need for help

Youth leaving state care are a vulnerable group. It is important to examine their status and needs before they leave care, so that policies and practices are designed to address their needs. The aim of this study is to assess readiness for independent living of youth on the verge of leaving residential care in Israel, and to identify the life domains in which they need further help. Further, the study examines personal and interpersonal resources that may predict levels of readiness and needs before leaving care.