Institutional Predictors of Developmental Outcomes Among Racially Diverse Foster Care Alumni

• Published in: American journal of orthopsychiatry Vol. 82; no. 4; pp. 573 - 584
• Main Authors: Garcia, Antonio R., Pecora, Peter J., Harachi, Tracy, Aisenberg, Eugene
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-10-2012; Blackwell Publishing Ltd; Wiley; American Psychological Association; Educational Publishing Foundation
• Subjects: Academic achievement; Adult; Best practice; Biological and medical sciences; Black or African American - psychology; Black or African American - statistics & numerical data; Child; child abuse; Child development; Child fostering; child neglect; Child welfare; Childhood Development; Children in care; Consumer Behavior; Cultural differences; Diversity; Educational Status; Employment - statistics & numerical data; Employment opportunities; Ethnicity - psychology; Ethnicity - statistics & numerical data; Evidence Based Practice; Female; Foster Care; foster care alumni; Foster Home Care - psychology; Foster Home Care - statistics & numerical data; Hispanic or Latino - psychology; Hispanic or Latino - statistics & numerical data; Human; Humans; Institutionalization; Intervention; Latino Child Welfare Research and Practice; Life Stage Transitions; Logistic Models; Male; Medical sciences; Mental Disorders - epidemiology; Mental Disorders - psychology; Mental health; mental health disorders; out‐of‐home care; Placement; placement instability; Prevention; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Race; Racial and Ethnic Differences; Racial Differences; Reform; Risk Factors; Sex; Social psychiatry. Ethnopsychiatry; Victimology; White People - psychology; White People - statistics & numerical data; child neglect; child abuse; Latino Child Welfare Research and Practice; out-of-home care; foster care alumni; mental health disorders; placement instability; Social environment; Human; Mental health; Practice; Foster care placement; Victimology; Child abuse; Development; Mental disorder; Predictive factor; Public health
• ISSN: 0002-9432; 1939-0025
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1939-0025.2012.01181.x

Child welfare practitioners are confronted with the responsibility of relying on best practice to ensure children in foster care transition successfully into adulthood after leaving the foster care system. Yet, despite recent reforms and efforts to address their needs, research clearly shows that foster care alumni are still more likely to experience negative developmental outcomes compared to adults in the general population. The purpose of this study was to better understand how child-serving systems of care adequately prepare racially diverse foster care alumni to thrive. Controlling for gender, age, placement instability, and circumstances of exit from foster care, study findings highlighted salient racial and ethnic differences relative to which factors predicted the odds of mental health, edu-cation, and employment outcomes. Implications for developing and implementing culturally sensitive, evidence-based prevention and intervention programs to promote positive developmental outcomes among racially diverse foster care alumni are discussed.