ESEARCH RIEF PublicationR #2002-59 4301 Connecticut Avenue,B NW, Suite 100, Washington, DC 20008 Phone 202-362-5580 Fax 202-362-5533 www.childtrends.org Youth who “Age Out” of Foster Care: Troubled Lives, Troubling Prospects By Richard Wertheimer, Ph.D. December 2002 verview When children are abused, neglected, or abandoned by their parents or when parents’ own Odifficulties (such as drug addiction, mental illness, and incarceration) leave them unable to provide adequate care, other relatives often step in. If no family members are able to take in these children, a court often places them in the care of other families or in institutions. And so, they enter the foster care system. Today, more than 500,000 children in America live in foster care – about 8 out of every 1,000 children.1 This is a vulnerable population. Children who enter foster care have emotional, behavioral, developmen­ tal, and health problems that reflect the difficult family and environmental circumstances that caused them to be removed from their homes in the first place. Most of the children in foster care return to their families or are adopted (often by their foster parents), but not all. In 2000, more than 19,000 of the oldest children left foster care – or “aged out” in the parlance of child protective services – and many were pretty much on their own.2 Usually, this happened when they turned 18.3 If foster children, in general, are a population at risk, youth who age out of the system may be even more so. Research suggests that without the extended support most families provide young people in the transi­ tion to adulthood, youth leaving foster care face enormous challenges in building successful lives. They are less well prepared educationally, have a harder time embarking on a productive career, are more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol, and are more likely to be involved with the legal system. However, it is worth recalling that many of the problems evidenced by foster children have their roots in experiences that occurred before they entered the foster care system. Various strategies may be effective in reducing the number of young adults aging out of foster care, including ensuring that every child born in America is a “wanted” child, improving the home environ­ ments of children at risk of abuse and neglect, and accelerating the permanent placement of foster chil­ dren when it is clear that their home environments pose too great a risk for them to return. And various approaches are being taken to help these vulnerable young people as they must navigate the waters of early adulthood largely on their own. Some of these approaches appear promising, but rigorous research is needed to confirm that what we think may work does, in fact, help this vulnerable population. FOSTER CARE IN THE U.S. arrangements making up the balance. Over the past two decades, the foster care population has General Trends grown substantially. Between 1980 and 2000:5 The vast majority of children in the U.S. live with ■ The number of children in foster care one or both parents – 96 percent did so in 2000.4 increased from 302,000 to 556,000 (as shown Yet about 1.4 million children live with neither a in Figure 1). parent nor a grandparent. Foster children make up ■ The rate of children in foster care increased more than 40 percent of this group of children, with from 4.7 for every 1,000 U.S. children in 1980 children living with other relatives or in other to 7.7 in 2000. F IGURE 1 Children of all ages entering foster care, leaving foster care, and in foster care at end of year, 1980-2000 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 Entered care Left care in care (end of year) Source: U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means (2000). Green Book 2000; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2002). The AFCARS Report #7, Interim FY 2000 Estimates. What’s behind these dramatic increases? On one ■ Hispanic children were somewhat overrepre­ level, they reflect the simple fact that more chil­ sented among children entering and living in dren are entering the foster care system than are foster care in proportion to their share of the leaving it. This amounts to a relatively small num­ overall population (16 percent of all children, 18 ber of children each year, but year after year these percent of children entering foster care, and 18 numbers add up, as seen in Figure 1. On another percent of children living in foster care). level, the growth in the foster care caseload during ■ Non-Hispanic white children were substan­ the 1980s and early- to mid-1990s coincides with tially underrepresented (64 percent of all increasing public awareness of child abuse and children, 47 percent of children entering foster neglect and several pieces of legislation designed to care, and 37 percent of children living in address it.6 In the late 1990s, the foster care case- foster care). load continued to increase even as substantiated ■ Asian and Pacific Islander children were also cases of child abuse and neglect declined underrepresented (4 percent of all children, 2 percent of children entering foster care, and Racial and Ethnic Disparities 1 percent of children living in foster care). Analyses show that the likelihood of entering care The end result of these disparities is a population and the likelihood of leaving care vary substantial­ of children in foster care that looks very different ly by race. In 1999, for example:7 from the overall population of U.S. children. ■ Non-Hispanic black children were overrepre­ What might account for this discrepancy? The sented among children entering foster care and overrepresentation of black children in foster care living in foster care. Although black children is partially due to a higher rate of entering care (8 accounted for only 15 percent of all children entries for every 1,000 black children versus 3 under age 18, they accounted for 30 percent of entries for every 1,000 white children and 4 children entering foster care, and 42 percent of entries for every 1,000 Hispanic children).8 But children living in foster care. this overrepresentation is also partially due to a ■ American Indian, Eskimo, and Aleut children lower rate of leaving care. Only 33 percent of were also overrepresented (1.0 percent of all black foster children left care in 1999, compared children, 2.7 percent of children entering foster with 53 percent of whites and 39 percent of His­ care, and 1.8 percent of children living in panics.9 In other words, the higher entry rate for foster care). black children combined with the lower exit rate 2 leads to a dramatic overrepresentation of black in foster care was associated with an earlier children in foster care. age of first pregnancy and having a larger But that is only a surface explanation. The deep­ number of sexual partners. Similarly, foster er reasons for this overrepresentation are com­ care by a relative was associated with an earlier plex, as well as controversial, underscoring the age of first intercourse and having a larger need for future research to sort them out.10 Pos­ number of sexual partners. sible explanations include: These findings should not be taken to mean that ■ a higher prevalence of poverty, single-parent­ living in foster care, by itself, is necessarily harm­ hood, and incarceration among black families; ful to children. Many of the problems experienced ■ higher rates of public assistance and receipt of by foster children originated before they entered social services (both of which may increase the foster care system. As noted, nearly all chil­ scrutiny) among black families; dren entering foster care are victims of sexual or ■ policies of social services agencies that placed physical abuse, neglect, or abandonment, or have a heavy weight on placing foster children with parent who is incarcerated or otherwise unable to adoptive families of the same race; and care for them.14 Thus, it is not surprising that ■ conscious or unconscious stereotypes that may these children are much more likely than other lead social workers to judge black parents children to have emotional, behavioral, develop­ 15 suspected of child abuse or neglect by a different mental, and health problems when they enter standard than parents of other races. foster care. Unfortunately, it is difficult to assess the effect of Characteristics of Foster Children foster care itself on foster children because situa­ There is no typical foster child. Each child in fos­ tions are often very complex, and research is gen­ ter care has his or her own history, personality, erally based on small samples that are not nation­ talents, and limitations, as is true of all children. ally representative. Still, two recent studies using Nevertheless, research suggests that most children small, localized samples found that being in foster who have experience with the foster care system care was associated with improved behavioral share a number of common characteristics. For outcomes: example, they are more likely to have: ■ A study of foster children in San Diego, ■ Compromised development: Nearly all California,16 found that youth ages 7 to 12 who studies of children in foster care show that they remained in foster care for at least five months experience more developmental problems than and who did not reunify with their natural other children while growing up. For example, parents had fewer risky or negative behaviors children living with foster parents are more six years later than youth who did reunify.