TY - JOUR
T1 - Permanency and the Educational and Economic Attainment of Former Foster Children in Early Adulthood
AU - Font, Sarah A.
AU - Berger, Lawrence M.
AU - Cancian, Maria
AU - Noyes, Jennifer L.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (1 R21 HD091459-01) and with support from the Population Research Institute at Penn State University (P2CHD041025). We thank the Wisconsin Dept. of Children and Families, Dept. of Health Services, Dept. of Corrections, Dept. of Public Instruction, and Dept. of Workforce Development for the use of data, but acknowledge that these agencies do not certify the accuracy of the analyses presented.
Publisher Copyright:
© American Sociological Association 2018.
PY - 2018/8/1
Y1 - 2018/8/1
N2 - Foster children are at disproportionate risk of adverse outcomes throughout the life course. Public policy prioritizes permanency (exiting foster care through reunification with birth parents, adoption, or legal guardianship) to promote foster youths’ healthy development and well-being, but little empirical evidence indicates that permanency, including its most preferred form—reunification—promotes positive outcomes. Using multi-system, statewide longitudinal administrative data, we employed logistic and mixed-effects regression to examine educational attainment and earnings among former foster youth in early adulthood. We found that youth who aged out of care had significantly higher odds of graduating high school and enrolling in college than did reunified youth and youth who exited to guardianship, and they had similar odds as adopted youth. Earnings were similar across groups. Among aged-out (but not reunified) youth, odds of high school graduation and average earnings were higher for youth who spent more time in foster care prior to age 18. Overall, results suggest that permanency alone is insufficient to promote foster youths’ educational and economic attainment.
AB - Foster children are at disproportionate risk of adverse outcomes throughout the life course. Public policy prioritizes permanency (exiting foster care through reunification with birth parents, adoption, or legal guardianship) to promote foster youths’ healthy development and well-being, but little empirical evidence indicates that permanency, including its most preferred form—reunification—promotes positive outcomes. Using multi-system, statewide longitudinal administrative data, we employed logistic and mixed-effects regression to examine educational attainment and earnings among former foster youth in early adulthood. We found that youth who aged out of care had significantly higher odds of graduating high school and enrolling in college than did reunified youth and youth who exited to guardianship, and they had similar odds as adopted youth. Earnings were similar across groups. Among aged-out (but not reunified) youth, odds of high school graduation and average earnings were higher for youth who spent more time in foster care prior to age 18. Overall, results suggest that permanency alone is insufficient to promote foster youths’ educational and economic attainment.
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U2 - 10.1177/0003122418781791
DO - 10.1177/0003122418781791
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85049663844
SN - 0003-1224
VL - 83
SP - 716
EP - 743
JO - American sociological review
JF - American sociological review
IS - 4
ER -