Youth of Color With Foster Care Experience: Navigating COVID-19 and Racism on College Campuses

• In Event: The Experiences of Foster Youth of Color: Interrogating Carceral Systems Toward (Re)Imagining Educational Opportunity

Abstract

Problem Statement

Youth of color with foster care experience are more likely to experience racial discrimination (Nagata et al., 2021) while also managing challenges inherent to being part of the child welfare system, including lack of racial/ethnic socialization and identity exploration (Mitchell, 2016; Montgomery et al., 2018). This study explores the resolve and resistance of youth of color with foster care experience and how their unique experiences spurred their approach to navigating the COVID-19 and racism pandemics on college campuses.

Theoretical Framework

This study utilizes racial socialization (Boykin et al., 1985) and self-definition (Okello, 2018) to explore how youth of color with foster care experience existed in their intersecting minoritized identities when confronting the COVID-19 and racism pandemics, and how they “[emphasized] agency in a matrix of domination” while “dreaming and imagining futures not yet known” (p. 538). While racial socialization is cited as a way to resist racism and facilitate healing (Anderson & Stevenson, 2019), many youth of color with foster care experience are deprived of this due to White normativity (Morris, 2016). Self-definition will enable further insight into how students resisted white supremacy.

The research questions that guided the study were:
How have students of color with foster care experience navigated the COVID-19 and racism pandemics?
How have staff on college campuses supported students of color with foster care experience during the COVID-19 and racism pandemics?

Methodology

This was a sequential mixed-methods study. Quantitative survey data was collected, followed by focus groups and interviews to explore emerging themes.

Participants, Data Collection and Analysis
Survey data included 155 students of color with a history of foster care, aged 18 to 29 years, attending a community college (n=60) or a university (n=95) in Los Angeles County. Qualitative data included five student focus groups (n=20) and three individual interviews with foster youth support program staff. Questions explored the unique impacts of COVID-19, ongoing racial injustice, identity-based discrimination, access to and helpfulness of campus services/resources, and how staff navigated supporting students during this time.

Preliminary Findings

Quantitative findings revealed that 42% of students reported experiencing discrimination at school based on their identity as current or former foster youth and 45% based on their racial/ethnic identity. Over 90% reported being impacted by the murders of Black people and related anti-racist uprisings and protests.
Findings from qualitative data yielded three primary themes:

Remembering and resisting racial trauma
Remembering and resisting foster care trauma
Staff as co-conspirators in their resistance

Discussion and Implications

Adverse experiences of youth of color with foster care experience may not only prepare them for later stressors, but also serve as a catalyst for actively resisting and persevering. Findings from this study highlight the need to dismantle and reimagine the child welfare and educational systems to prevent these experiences, while also co-designing targeted supports to uplift young people with these intersecting identities, promote racial literacy, identity, and socialization, and build educational experiences on a foundation of justice and equity.

Authors

• Matthew Ruderman, University of California - Los Angeles

• Kenyon Lee Whitman, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Brenda Tully, University of California - Los Angeles

• Brianna Marche' Harvey, California State University - Fullerton

• Audra Langley, University of California - Los Angeles