This brief describes the relationship between placement stability and youth engagement in the Youth Transitions Partnership (YTP), a program developed and implemented by the Alameda County Social Services Agency (SSA) for 14- to 20-year-olds in foster care who have multiple risk factors for experiencing homelessness. The authors used program data…

Purpose: This study examines foster care reentry after adoption, in Illinois and New Jersey. The provision of services and supports to adoptive families have garnered recent attention due to concern about the long-term stability of adoptive homes. Method: This study used administrative data to examine the pre-adoption characteristics associated…

The transition to adulthood is an underresearched topic for cross-systems youth, defined as young people who have experienced homelessness, child welfare system involvement, and educational challenges. This qualitative study explored processes of resilience in the transition to adulthood for cross-systems youth aged 18 to 24 (n = 20). Analysis of…

Background: Procuring safe housing is a salient developmental task during emerging adulthood, one that is especially challenging for emancipated foster youth. Yet, little is known about factors that influence foster youths' housing experiences. Objective: This investigation documented changes in foster youth's housing quality during the first…

Finishing high school and attaining a college degree have become increasingly important to finding stable employment and earning a living wage. By age 19, most youth in the US have earned a high school credential and many have entered college. However, the educational attainment of young people who were in foster care as adolescents lags behind…

The Center for State Foster Care and Adoption Data, operated by Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, supports child welfare agencies in using longitudinal data to improve outcomes for children. For the purposes of this article, the authors analyzed data for 14 states from 2000 through 2008 to examine trends in foster care placement, length of…

To measure the outcomes of youth transitioning out of foster care, states are required to administer the national Youth in Transition Database (NYTD) survey to cohorts of youth at ages 17, 19 and 21. The Children's Bureau shares highlights that compare the outcomes reported by youth in the first NYTD cohort at ages 17 and 19. With the second wave…

Children with experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) are at risk. Not all children, however, display symptoms, and differences connected to gender and age have been demonstrated. In this exploratory study, children's own reports of symptoms were used. The 41 recruited children, between 7 and 19 years old, were entered into a group program…

Research suggests that child maltreatment predicts juvenile violence, but it is uncertain whether the effects of victimization persist into adulthood or differ across gender. Furthermore, we know little about the mechanisms underlying the victim-perpetrator cycle for males and females. Consequently, this study analyzed associations between child…

One hundred and seventy three male juvenile offenders were followed two years postrelease from a residential treatment facility to assess recidivism and factors related to recidivism. The overall recidivism rate was 23.9%. Logistic regression with stepwise and backward variable selection methods was used to examine the relationship between…

Nationally, families of color--particularly African American and American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN)--are over-represented in child welfare systems. These families also tend to have worse outcomes--such as children more likely to be removed from their homes, less likely to receive family preservation services, and in the case of African…

The Children's Bureau released highlights from state National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD) data submissions from Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2013 (October 1, 2012 to September 30, 2013). In this third year of data collection, states reported information on (1) all youth and young adults who received independent living services during FFY 2013…

Suicide is a serious public health problem that causes immeasurable pain, suffering, and loss to individuals, families, and communities nationwide. Many people may be surprised to learn that suicide was one of the top 10 causes of death in the United States in 2009. And death is only the tip of the iceberg. For every person who dies by suicide,…

Parents with intellectual disabilities (PID) are overrepresented in the child protective services (CPS) system. This study examined a more nuanced view of the role of cognition in parenting risk. Its goal was to validate a social information processing (SIP) model of child neglect that draws on social cognition research and advances in…

This study identified selected child factors (e.g., age, gender, race/ethnicity, disabilities, prior victimization, and relationship to perpetrator of abuse), family risk factors (e.g., substance abuse, domestic violence, inadequate housing, and financial problems), and services provided by child protective services that likely increased reports…