The educational journey of former foster youth: A dream deferred

Summary This qualitative study explored the educational needs and experiences of 27 adults who were between the ages of 30 and 50 but emancipated from foster care as youth. This study employed an interpretive phenomenological approach to understanding the narratives of the participants to gain deeper insight into the supports and barriers in obtaining a post-secondary education. Findings Key findings from this study are that the majority of emancipated youth desire to obtain a post-secondary education but developmental difficulties such as an incomplete transition into emerging adulthood, lack of knowledge about post-secondary education, and lack of financial resources prevent matriculation into higher education. However, later in life, many emancipated youths are able to return to a post-secondary institution and graduate with a bachelor’s degree or higher. The primary supportive factor is a positive relationship and additional developmental maturity afforded by time. Applications Implications of these findings are that those serving emancipating youth need to employ a developmental biopsychosocial perspective in assisting these youth. Both ensuring their healthy development and maturation but also helping to remove logistical barriers to ensure the ability of these youth to obtain a post-secondary education.

Foster Care, Permanency, and Risk of Prison Entry

Objective: (1) Examine associations of foster care exit type (e.g., reunification with birth family, adoption, guardianship/permanent relative placement, or emancipation from care) with risk of entry into state prison; (2) Examine racial disparities in those associations. Method: With data on over 10,000 Wisconsin youth who entered foster care in mid- to late-childhood, we present imprisonment rates in young adulthood by race, sex, and foster care exit type. Proportional hazards models with a robust set of covariates compared prison entry rates among the most common exit types—reunification, aging out, and guardianship/permanent relative placement. Results: Nearly 13 percent of the sample experienced imprisonment in young adulthood. Compared with emancipated youth, hazard of imprisonment was 1.58–1.96 times higher among reunified youth. Differences were largely unexplained by observed individual, family, or foster care characteristics. Imprisonment rates were similar for emancipated youth and youth exiting to guardianship/permanent relative placement. Hazard of imprisonment for reunified Black youth was twice that of reunified white youth, but racial differences in prison entry were statistically non-significant among emancipated youth. Conclusion: Efforts to reduce incarceration risk for all youth in foster care are needed. Reunified youth may benefit from services and supports currently provided primarily to emancipated youth.

Sharing personal health record data elements in protective custody: youth and stakeholder perspectives

Objective The study sought to develop the necessary elements for a personalized health record (PHR) for youth emancipating from child protective custody (eg, foster care) by collecting thoughts and ideas from current and former foster youth and community stakeholders who have a significant amount of experience working with emancipating young people. Materials and Methods We employed a mixed methods, participatory research design using concept mapping to identify key features for PHR across stakeholders. Results In the clusters, common themes for necessary elements for a PHR included health education, health tips, medication instructions, diagnoses including severity, and website resources that could be trusted to provide reliable information, and addressed data privacy issues such as the primary user being able to choose what diagnoses to share with their trusted adult and the ability to assign a trusted adult to view a part of the record. Discussion By directly involving youth in the design of the PHR, we are able to ensure we included the necessary health and life skills elements that they require. As a PHR is created for foster youth, it is important to consider the multiple uses that the data may have for emancipated youth. Conclusion A PHR for foster youth needs to include an appropriate combination of information and education for a vulnerable population. In addition to providing some of their basic health and custody information, a PHR provides an opportunity to give them information that can be trusted to explain common diagnoses, medications, and family health history risks.

Human Right Education as Part of Education for Democracy: the Case of Albania

With the overthrow of the dictatorial communist regime, in Albania were created opportunities for discussing theoretical - practical human rights. The most typical periods when the man clearly raises and cut the question, "How to live in a dignity?", are periods of great social turmoil. Given this premise, the study embraces some of the most important issues of discussion and the concrete reality of the implementation of human rights in the Albanian reality. Human rights are rights that protect individuals and allow them to live with dignity protected from arbitrary of the state, or any other authority. Human life is an irreversible and therefore human rights constitute a "sacred" space, an unalienable individual sphere. This is why human rights rise to the level of fundamental valuation criteria of democracy and the legitimacy of a government. Given the historical circumstances of the development of democracy in Albania, discussion and attempts to put them in life, should be one of the essential features of education of new generations and youth activity itself. Attracting youth in daily discussion and efforts for the realization of human rights, is an imperative of our democratic life. The study is oriented towards younger generations, especially for the young student as the most emancipated youth, to become a participant in the activity of building a democratic state of law.

Adapting to aging out: Profiles of risk and resilience among emancipated foster youth

This investigation employed latent profile analysis to identify distinct patterns of multiform competence among 164 emancipated foster youth (Mage = 19.67 years, SD = 1.12; 64% female). Fit indices and conceptual interpretation converged on a four-profile solution. A subset of emancipated youth evidenced a maladaptive profile (16.5%; n = 27), which was characterized by low educational competence, low occupational competence, low civic engagement, problematic interpersonal relationships, low self-esteem, and high depressive symptoms. However, the largest group of emancipated youth exhibited a resilient profile in which they were faring reasonably well in all domains despite marked adversity (47%; n = 77). Two additional groups evidenced discordant adjustment patterns wherein they exhibited high levels of psychological competence despite behavioral difficulties (i.e., internally resilient; 30%; n = 49) or significant emotional difficulties despite manifest competence (i.e., externally resilient; 6.5%; n = 11). The obtained profiles were validated against independent measures of behavioral and socioemotional adjustment. Exploratory analyses examined etiological differences across profiles with respect to child welfare variables, such as age at entry into care, placement disruption, reason for placement, and severity of child maltreatment. The findings highlight the need for multidimensional models of risk and resilience and illustrate the importance of heretofore underappreciated heterogeneity in the adaptive outcomes of emancipated foster youth.