Youth in Foster Care and Unstable Housing by LGBTQ Identity: Difference in Associations with Well-Being

• In Event: Child Maltreatment, Child Welfare Involvement and Predictors of Youth Risk and Resilience

Abstract

Youth in foster care and in unstable housing arrangements are likely to experience greater victimization at school, substance use, mental health problems, and worse school climate relative to stably housed youth, though previous research has found that youth in foster care differ from unstably housed youth on key well-being measures (Baams et al., 2019). Differences may also emerge by sexual orientation and gender identity, with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) youth statistically overrepresented in foster care and unstable housing arrangements relative to their cisgender, heterosexual peers. The purpose of the current study was to explore the differential strength of associations between victimization, substance use, mental health problems, and school climate for youth in foster care relative to youth in unstable housing arrangements by LGBTQ identity.

Data were drawn from a subset of the California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) and included students in grades 6 – 12 from 2017 – 2019. Participants included 5,270 youth who were currently living in foster care (n = 2,245; 42.6%) or unstable housing arrangements (n = 3,025; 57.4%; e.g., living in a hotel/motel, shelter, car, campground, or another temporary housing arrangement). Youth reported their sexual orientation (lesbian/gay; bisexual; straight (not gay); I am not sure yet; something else), transgender identity (yes; no; I am not sure yet), substance use (9 items), depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation (DSS; 2 items), school climate (15 items), and victimization (7 items). Covariates included sex, grade in school, and receipt of free or reduced-price lunch.

Analyses were conducted using structural equation modeling. Victimization, DSS, and substance use were operationalized as first-order latent constructs and school climate was operationalized as a second-order latent construct. We tested a model examining associations between victimization, DSS, school climate, and substance use for all youth. Multiple group analysis across four groups defined by housing arrangement (foster care or unstable housing) and sexual orientation and transgender identity (LGBTQ or cisgender heterosexual) examined group differences in latent means and structural associations between key variables.

For the full sample, victimization and DSS were positively associated with substance use, and negatively associated with school climate. Latent mean differences between the four groups indicated that LGBTQ youth in both living arrangements experienced more victimization, DSS, substance use and worse school climate than cisgender, heterosexual youth – differences emerged by living arrangement. Comparison of structural associations indicated that the link between victimization and substance use was significantly stronger for LGBTQ youth in unstable housing relative to all other groups, and the link between DSS and school climate was weakest for LGBTQ youth in foster care.

Findings indicate that victimization and DSS are key predictors of substance use and school climate for youth in foster care and unstable housing arrangements. Efforts to prevent/intervene in victimization is particularly needed to support LGBTQ youth in unstable housing. Foster care may hold a protective effect for LGBTQ youth by buffering the link between DSS and school climate, though more research is needed to understand aspects of foster care experiences that are particularly beneficial.

Authors

• Amy McCurdy, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author

• Stephen T Russell, University of Texas at Austin