Ethnoracial inequality and child protection system efforts to engage families of transition-age youth

• In Event: 30420 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 4: Race, Health, and Inequalities

Abstract

Child protection systems in the United States remove children of color from their families at disproportionate rates and youth of color are more likely than their White counterparts to remain in foster care until they reach emerging adulthood. Despite this and despite ethnoracial inequalities in youths’ outcomes upon aging out of foster care, little research examines the extent of ethnoracial inequalities in services to transition-age youth while in foster care. We set out to analyze ethnoracial patterns in agencies’ efforts to help youth maintain their relationships with members of their family-of-origin to whom they felt close, as these relationships can serve as a source of identity, belonging, and support in the transition to adulthood. Applying logistic regression to secondary data from The California Youth Transitions to Adulthood Study (N = 721), we found no differences in agency efforts across youths’ ethnoracial identities; efforts to support family bonds were universally low. A minority of youth felt that agencies did enough to support their close family relationships or that they visited their parents and siblings frequently enough. Although Latine youth were more likely to report that enough was done than White youth in bivariate analyses, Latine youths’ lower reports of adverse experiences prior to foster placement compared to White youth accounted for this difference. We plan to discuss the implications of racialized selection into and out of foster care by late adolescence for interpreting our results and understanding how racial inequalities within and outside of child protection systems pattern transition-age youth service experiences and outcomes.

Authors

• Julia M. Arroyo, College of Charleston

• Stephanie A. Dhuman, Hamilton College