Outcomes Across the Life Course of Youth affected by Foster Care and Adoption

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

There is strong interest in policies that can improve outcomes for children living in foster care or who are adopted, considering that these children face risks not experienced by children raised by biological parents. This panel includes policy-relevant research on the evolution of outcomes over time and at different points in the life course for children touched by foster care or adoption. These studies have a strong focus on family and relational aspects of foster care and adoption, such as ramifications for parents, parental reunification, decisions to moving away from home, and parent-child relationships.

In the provision of foster care, there are unanswered questions about how foster care policies can support positive child development in infancy through the end of foster care involvement as children age out of state care. Two papers on the panel explore the importance of policy involvement in shaping persistent outcomes for children at either end of childhood (infancy and emerging adulthood). Adoption also likely has long-term ramifications for children as they transition to adulthood and beyond, and two papers in the panel explore how adoption shapes later life outcomes, highlighting a need for a better understanding of the long reach of foster care and adoption policy on affected children. Taken together, these studies illuminate new insights into the ability of policy to improve the lived experiences of foster children and adopted children.

The session includes a diverse set of research methods, including instrumental variables analysis, machine learning, instrumented difference-in-difference analysis, and observational methods to illuminate patterns and mechanisms of change. These studies employ high-quality largescale or linked datasets to provide strong empirical validity and generalizability. The session approaches the topic from an interdisciplinary posture—contributors are diverse, including senior scholars, junior scholars, and graduate students hailing from economics, social work, public affairs, sociology, family studies, and statistics. These approaches are all brought to bear with strong cohesion on important questions of policy relevance in foster care and adoption.

Policy Area

• Family and Child Policy

Chair

• Lawrence M. Berger, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Discussants

• Ezra G. Goldstein, Georgia Institute of Technology

• Jason Baron, Duke University

Organizer

• Jocelyn Wikle, Brigham Young University

Individual Presentations

• Fostering a Gentler Flight from the Nest: Effects of Foster Care Reform on Labor Market Outcomes - Presenting Author: Kate Musen, Columbia University

• Flying the Coop: Leaving Home among Adopted Young Adults - Presenting Author: Jocelyn Wikle, Brigham Young University

• Thicker Than Water? Long-run Implication of Adoption on Parent-Child Relationships in Adulthood - Presenting Author: Lanette Jones Nelson, Brigham Young University

• Hello Baby: Reducing Contact with Child Protective Services - Presenting Author: scott huhr, The University of Chicago; Non-Presenting Co-Author: Fred Wulczyn, Chapin Hall at The University of Chicago