Emerging Adulthood and Leaving Foster Care: Settings Associated with Mental Health

The present study examined the role of contextual support on mental health during the transition to adulthood within a vulnerable group, adolescents leaving foster care because of their age. Participants were 265 19- to 23-year-olds who retrospectively reported on 3 main contexts of emerging adultho...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of community psychology 2011-06, Vol.47 (3-4), p.335-348
Main Authors: Fowler, Patrick J., Toro, Paul A., Miles, Bart W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic Achievement
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Clinical Psychology
Community and Environmental Psychology
Educational Attainment
Emerging adulthood
Employment
Female
Foster Care
Foster Home Care - psychology
Health Psychology
Housing
Humans
Latent growth modeling
Life Change Events
Life Stage Transitions
Male
Mental Health
Mental Health Services
Michigan
Original Paper
Personality and Social Psychology
Psychological aspects
Psychology
Public Health
Retrospective Studies
Social Support
Transitions
Vulnerability
Vulnerable Populations - psychology
Young Adult
Young adults
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Summary:The present study examined the role of contextual support on mental health during the transition to adulthood within a vulnerable group, adolescents leaving foster care because of their age. Participants were 265 19- to 23-year-olds who retrospectively reported on 3 main contexts of emerging adulthood: housing security, educational achievement, and employment attainment in the first 2 years after leaving foster care. Mental health measured self-reported emotional distress, substance abuse, and deviancy at the time of interview. Growth Mixture Modeling empirically identified 3 latent trajectory classes. Stable-Engaged (41%) experienced secure housing and increasing connections to education and employment over time. Stable-Disengaged (30%) maintained housing but reported decreasing rates of education and small increases in employment. Instable-Disengaged (29%) experienced chronic housing instability, declined connection to education, and failed to attain employment. Stable-Engaged and Stable-Disengaged classes reported better mental health compared to the Instable-Disengaged class, indicating the importance of housing in transitioning to adulthood.
ISSN:0091-0562
1573-2770
DOI:10.1007/s10464-010-9401-2