The purpose of this study is to highlight the situation for youths leaving foster care and entering adult life. The study examines the services provided by the social service in the Stockholm area when a youth is leaving foster care, and if a recent change in the legislation has had any impact on the operating procedures of the social service. The study includes interviews with youths who recently left foster care, as well as information collected from social service offices through a survey, supplemented by interviews with practicing social workers. All the assembled data have been analyzed using Ecological Systems theory with focus on the child perspective and the term significant others. The study shows that the respondent youth have trouble identifying the formal ending with social services, as well as the support they received or were offered. As assembled from the survey, the few supporting services that are being arranged in connection with leaving care are similar between different social service offices. The general opinion is that they offer the required extra support that the new legislation aims to strengthen. The majority of the social service offices has therefore not changed their existing leaving care procedures. In this process, a lot of responsibility tends to be delegated to the foster homes, and due to insufficient resources social workers feel inadequate in those cases were the youth’s need for help is not met by the former foster home.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Youth in the foster care system receive less sexual and reproductive health education, experience higher levels of negative sexual health outcomes, and engage in more risky sexual behaviors than peers not in the foster care system. Counteracting these concerns requires understanding the processes that contribute to these outcomes. A conceptual model interfacing traditional identity development theories and social constructionist theories of social sexualization was developed that posited sociosexual input factors of sexual education and socialization, sexual abuse history, and adverse childhood experiences affect youths’ sexual identity development, which then impacts youths’ level of sexual health. Hierarchical linear regression determined the level of impact of sexual socialization on sexual health within a sample of youth formerly in the foster care system (n = 219). Whether sexual identity development level mediated the relationship between sexuality-related discussions and sexual health was tested as well as how relationship quality moderates the effects of sexuality-related topic discussions on sexual identity development. Further analysis explored differences between the experiences of youth who identified as sexual minorities and their peers who identified as heterosexual. Results indicated that gender identity, sexual orientation, adverse childhood experiences, sexual abuse history, and sexuality-related discussions with foster parents and with peers all impact sexual health. All four dimensions of sexual identity development significantly contributed to sexual health outcomes. Mediation occurred with two of the four sexual identity development dimensions, whereas no moderation effects were indicated. Youth who identified as sexual minorities and youth who identified as heterosexual had significantly different scores on three of four sexual identity development dimensions and youth who identified as sexual minorities had worse sexual health outcomes. Results indicate the importance of the sexual identity development process on sexual health and that youths’ sexual orientation identity must be considered when designing interventions to improve sexual health outcomes.

Foster care case managers are responsible for the wellbeing of foster youth in the foster care system. Teens (ages 13-17) in foster care are most vulnerable to serious risks, such as sex trafficking. Such risks have been heightened by the advent of internet-based technologies that connect foster youth with unsafe others at unprecedented frequency and speed. This thesis examines how case managers tackle the challenge of online safety as it relates to adolescents in the foster care system in the United States. I conducted 32 semi-structured interviews with case managers who worked with foster teens (ages 13-17) within the past 5 years. After each interview, I transcribed the recording and conducted qualitative data analysis to identify emerging themes. I found that foster teens face numerous online risks with sexual-related risks (e.g., sex trafficking) and contact-related risks (e.g., unsolicited contact) being most prominent. However, case workers may not be prepared to address all of these challenges because of lack of online safety training and support from foster parents. Also, case workers are overburdened with many responsibilities that make online safety a secondary priority. This thesis identifies the gaps in which case managers are trained and highlights the need for more support to handle online safety challenges. Therefore, this thesis recommends that the foster care system must place a higher priority in establishing support groups and collaborative training among foster parents, case workers, and foster children to fully manage foster youth online safety.

Youth in the foster care system experience unique and challenging situations online, such as higher risks of inappropriate messaging (e.g., sexting) and unwanted solicitations from strangers. As a vulnerable group of adolescents, foster youth often use online platforms as a resource to express themselves and seek support over their sexual experiences online. This thesis analyzes how foster youth seek support online for their sexual risk experiences, including sexual abuse, sexting, and sexuality. To understand how adolescents (ages 13-17) in the child welfare system seek support for these experiences, we conducted a thematic analysis of 541 individual posts made by 121 different foster youth on an online mental health peer support forum. The majority of the foster youth used the platform to seek support online over their traumatic sexual experiences involving sexual abuse (42%), sexting (31%), and sexuality (28%). Approximately 9% of foster youth used the platform to connect with others for sexting. As a result of seeking support online and connecting with others on the platform, they shared personal and intimate details about themselves and their experiences and, unfortunately, also encountered unwanted sexual solicitations while doing so. Our research highlights the importance of providing safe spaces for foster youth to seek support and advice regarding their sexual risk experiences online. Trigger Warning: This thesis discusses sensitive topics, such as sexual abuse and sexuality. Reader discretion is advised.

In the United States, approximately 400,000 children reside in foster care, and most have been exposed to caregiver abuse, neglect, or abandonment. A majority of foster children suffer the effects of damaging circumstances including poverty, violence, inferior health care, and substandard housing. Consequently, young foster youth frequently struggle to accomplish developmental tasks such as establishing secure attachment relationships, cultivating preacademic skills, and acquiring social-emotional competence. The purpose of this research was to determine the impact of Peace4Kids, a nonprofit community-based organization, on young foster youths’ social-emotional development and pre-academic skills. Data collected from parents, teachers, and administrators during semi-structured interviews documented children’s experiences as they attended the organization’s Saturday Core Program. Participants noted that as foster children participated in a variety of curricular and co-curricular experiences at Peace4Kids, their social, emotional, and academic development were positively impacted. Parents, teachers, and administrators reported that the organization’s culture of consistency, trust, and accountability promoted secure attachment relationships among foster youth, staff members, and peers at the Saturday Core Program. Participants iterated that secure relationships provided a foundation for foster children to subsequently acquire social and emotional capacities, including persistence, conflict resolution, self-regulation, and autonomy. As youth in foster care developed social-emotional competencies, pre-academic skills such as literacy and numeracy emerged. This study’s findings indicate that a comprehensive approach is necessary to address the unique needs of foster children who have experienced prior trauma. Additionally, this research study contributes to a growing body of work that explores the role of attachment relationships in group and organizational settings.

As educators and higher education administrators, it is important that we connect to our students. It serves us well to learn the stories behind those beautiful eyes looking back at us, as we support their navigation through the journey of higher education. This thesis, written in a Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN) style, will use former foster youth students, as well as at-risk youth, as the population of focus. I will relay my own personal experiences, as a former youth-in-care. I will also explore this kind of alternative upbringing, to draw closer to the conclusions and insights of the struggles and triumphs of this population's journey through higher education. I will show how the successful connections with supportive administrators, friends, and family lead to a successful student and improved human being upon graduation. When we label our marginalized students as "at-risk" we are imposing a story upon them, that is not theirs. This stereotypes where they came from dismisses their stories, and triumphs, and places them in a box that labels them. We need to provide them the same opportunities and supports that other students get to help make their way into and through college. We must remove the label of "at-risk" but this is only part of the journey in supporting these young people while they progress toward a degree. It is our job to increase success through weaving together opportunities to connect with different departments, different leaders on campus, and different groups of their peers. From the classroom, to our offices and hallways, this will help these students to create a stronger view of themselves and the world. As a former youth in foster care, I am not at-risk. I am at-promise. All the vulnerable young adults that I talk about in this thesis are not "at-risk." Instead, they are 'at-promise.'

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

abstract: Those who are in or have aged out of foster care, most of whom are queer, Black, brown, and low-income, are represented by social workers, educational advocates, behavioral health specialists, and the mainstream media as “at-risk” for criminal behavior, teen pregnancy, homelessness, and lower levels of educational attainment. Current and former residents of foster care and their experiences must be understood beyond these deficit models in order to restore humanity to and bring about positive change for this population. This project traced the strategies for survival of those in and aged out of foster care in Arizona through artmaking and critical qualitative methods. Using borderlands theory and medicinal histories, I demonstrated how system involved youth paint a picture of foster care as a dehumanizing borderland creating una cultura mestiza – a hybrid culture that youth learned to navigate as both healers and healing. Additionally, I argued the foster care system is inherently disabling by way of the processual (re)narrativization the system dictates in order to make those in the system legible to the State through the labeling of mental and physical disabilities. Lastly, I explored insights garnered about foster care through ensemble-based devised theatre. I found it is important to have systemic representations of foster care in tandem with embodied experiences of said system. Collage-making served as an accessible mechanism for relationship building, material generation, and material knowledge. I discovered meaningful ways of representing absent presences of system involved people through feeding forward their artistic creations into the devising process. Taken together, I found foster care system involved people survive through art and creativity, connection to people and places, and keen resourcefulness cultivated in the system. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Women and Gender Studies 2020

Research suggests that the relatively low rates of former foster youth enrolling in and graduating from a postsecondary institution may be related to lack of foster care system support. This study examined whether perceived support from the foster care system was related to the postsecondary enrollment and academic performance of former foster youth, and whether males and females differed in perceived support from the foster care system. Forty-five former foster youth aged 18-24 years who had transitioned from a southeastern state completed a measure of social support and reported whether they had attended a postsecondary institution and, if so, their cumulative grade point average (CGPA). Analysis showed no significant relationships between participants' perceptions of foster care system support and their postsecondary attendance or performance. Analysis also showed no difference between genders in perceived support from the foster care system based on gender. Two notable results of the study were that over half the sample reported they had attended or were attending a postsecondary institution, with over 90% of those planning to continue, and nearly 40% reported a college GPA of 3.0 or above, suggesting considerable success in postsecondary classes. A limitation of the study was its reliance on self-report data. Recommendations included repeating the study by surveying former foster youth in several states to obtain ample participants. A social change implication was that a number of former foster youth are overcoming the unique challenges they face that might hinder their postsecondary attendance and success.