Dataset Information

Permanency and the Educational and Economic Attainment of Former Foster Children in Early Adulthood.

ABSTRACT: 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) as means of promoting healthy development and wellbeing for foster youth, 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 included a variety of sociodemographic and economic controls to reduce selection bias. We found that youth who did not attain permanency (those who aged out of care) had significantly higher odds of graduating high school and enrolling in college than reunified youth and youth who exited to guardianship, and 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 those who spent more time in foster care prior to age 18. Notably, some findings were sensitive to the categorization of youth who ran away from care. Overall, results suggest that permanency alone is insufficient to promote foster youths' educational and economic attainment.

SUBMITTER: Berger L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7286604 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Permanency and the Educational and Economic Attainment of Former Foster Children in Early Adulthood.

Berger Lawrence L Cancian Maria M Noyes Jennifer J

American sociological review 20180703 4

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) as means of promoting healthy development and wellbeing for foster youth, but little empirical evidence indicates that permanency, including its most preferred form-reunification-promotes positive outcomes. Using multi-system, statewide longitudinal administrative data, we ...[more]

PMID: 32523160

Similar Datasets

Project description:ImportanceThere is a well-established negative association of educational attainment (EA) and other traits related to cognitive ability with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood.ObjectivesTo investigate the association of PTSD with traits related to EA.Design, setting, and participantsGenetic correlation, polygenic risk scoring, and mendelian randomization (MR) were conducted including 23 185 individuals with PTSD and 151 309 control participants from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium for PTSD and up to 1 131 881 individuals assessed for EA and related traits from UK Biobank, 23andMe, and the Social Science Genetic Association Consortium. Data were analyzed from July 3 through November 19, 2018.Main outcomes and measuresGenetic correlation obtained from linkage disequilibrium score regression, phenotypic variance explained by polygenic risk scores, and association estimates from MR.ResultsSummary association data from multiple genome-wide association studies were available for a total of 1 180 352 participants (634 391 [53.7%] women). Posttraumatic stress disorder showed negative genetic correlations with EA (rg = -0.26; SE = 0.05; P = 4.60 × 10-8). Mendelian randomization analysis, conducting considering a random-effects inverse-variance weighted method, indicated that EA has a negative association with PTSD (β = -0.23; 95% CI, -0.07 to -0.39; P = .004). Investigating potential mediators of the EA-PTSD association, propensity for trauma exposure and risk-taking behaviors were observed as risk factors for PTSD independent of EA (trauma exposure: β = 0.37; 95% CI, 0.19 to 0.52; P = 2.57 × 10-5; risk-taking: β = 0.76; 95% CI, 0.38 to 1.13; P = 1.13 × 10-4), while income may mediate the association of EA with PSTD (MR income: β = -0.18; 95% CI, -0.29 to -0.07; P = .001; MR EA: β = -0.23; 95% CI, -0.39 to -0.07; P = .004; multivariable MR income: β = -0.32; 95% CI, -0.57 to 0.07; P = .02; multivariable MR EA: β = -0.04; 95% CI, -0.29 to 0.21; SE, 0.13; P = .79).Conclusions and relevanceLarge-scale genomic data sets add further evidence to the negative association of EA with PTSD, also supporting the role of economic status as a mediator in the association observed.

Project description:Background/objectivesObesity and other predictors of type 2 diabetes disproportionally affect Hispanic and Black children in the US compared to non-Hispanic White (NHW) children. Yet, the prevalence of prediabetes in children remains unestablished, and guidelines for screening young children are lacking. This study examined the relationships between demographic factors and prediabetes in vulnerable youth in central Texas.Subjects/methodsThis is a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from 976 3rd-5th graders (7-12 years) who participated in TX Sprouts, a school-based gardening, nutrition, and cooking trial in 16 elementary schools serving mainly children from minority backgrounds and lower-income households. Measures collected included age, sex, ethnicity, free/reduced-priced school lunch (FRL) status, parent educational attainment (questionnaires), BMI from height (stadiometer) and weight (TANITA scale), and prediabetes status from fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and HbA1c. Regressions examined cross-sectional associations between demographics and FPG, HbA1c, and prediabetes.ResultsChildren were 47% male, 67% Hispanic, and 10% Black, with a mean age of 9.3 years; 71% received FRL, 50% had overweight/obesity, and 26% had prediabetes. Prediabetes rates were 2.8 and 4.8 times higher in Hispanic and Black children compared to NHW children, respectively (p ≤ 0.001), and 1.5 times higher in children with obesity versus normal BMI (p = 0.02). Children of parents with only an 8th-grade education, some high school education, or a high school degree had 3.1, 2.7, and 2.2 times higher odds of having prediabetes compared to children of college graduates, respectively (p ≤ 0.004). Analyses with FPG and HbA1c yielded similar results.ConclusionThese findings suggest a potential need for earlier screening, more comprehensive testing guidelines, and prevention programs tailored toward minority children, children with obesity, and children of parents with low educational attainment. Future research should explore this finding in a larger, nationally representative sample.

Dataset Information

Permanency and the Educational and Economic Attainment of Former Foster Children in Early Adulthood.

Publications

Permanency and the Educational and Economic Attainment of Former Foster Children in Early Adulthood.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets