Emerging Adulthood for Maltreated and Foster Youth

摘要 到18岁时，美国13%的年轻人已被确认为至少一次儿童事件的受害者 儿童保护服务机构虐待或疏忽照顾的儿童和6%的儿童经历过家庭外照料。为 黑人青年的这一比例达到了惊人的21%和12%。而大多数年轻人依赖父母或家庭 成员在过渡到成年期间的经济和情感支持，这通常不是 有虐待和OHC病史的青少年，其家庭关系可能破裂。然而，几乎没有 大量关于虐待和OHC的研究集中在成年初期，以及之前的研究结果 在OHC对以后结果的潜在影响方面是不一致的，强调有必要密切 检查OHC经验中的异质性。OHC经历的许多特点可能会影响长期 发展，包括安置类型、安置数量、青年是否团聚、被收养或 在OHC中呆到成年(“年老”，不再照顾)。先前的研究往往过分简化了这一巨大的 体验的多样性。更好地理解虐待和OHC经验在新出现中的作用 成年期将为参与CPS的青年提供新的方案编制和政策决策方面的见解。这个 拟议的研究将使用全州范围的纵向管理数据集，其中包括 参与CPS的青年和其家庭参加威斯康星州社会福利计划的青年 研究一系列虐待和OHC经历如何与社会、教育和 成年初期的经济成果，包括就业和收入、福利领取、教育 获得、生育时机、监禁、密切关注所经历的虐待类型(S) 以及OHC放置特征(类型、长度、放置数量)和退出OHC的类型(老化 外出、重新统一或收养)。最后，我们将考察年轻的成年父母在多大程度上 有经验的儿童参与CPS或OHC可能成为CPS调查的对象或 关于他们自己的孩子的安置。这项研究扩展了这一领域的先前工作，使用了 确定战略和比较(反事实)群体，以减少估计的关联中的偏见 虐待和OHC以及随后的后果。它具有为政策和实践提供信息的含义 更好地为参与CPS的青年做好准备，使其成功过渡到成年，从而减少 随后在这一人群上的公共支出。

Abstract By age 18, 13% of youth in the United States have been identified as victims of at least one incident of child abuse or neglect by Child Protective Services (CPS) and 6% have experienced out-of-home care (OHC). For black youth, these rates are a staggering 21% and 12%. Whereas most youth rely on parents or family members for financial and emotional support during the transition to adulthood, this often is not an option for youth with histories of maltreatment and OHC, whose familial relationships may be fractured. Yet, little of the large body of research on maltreatment and OHC focuses on emerging adulthood, and prior research findings are inconsistent with respect to the potential effects of OHC on later outcomes, highlighting the need to closely examine heterogeneity in OHC experiences. Many characteristics of the OHC experience may affect long term development, including placement type, number of placements, whether youth are reunified, adopted, or remain in OHC until adulthood (“age out” of care). Prior research has often oversimplified this immense diversity in experiences. Better understanding the role of maltreatment and OHC experiences in emerging adulthood will provide new insight into programming and policy decisions for CPS-involved youth. The proposed study will use a statewide, longitudinal, administrative dataset that includes the entire population of CPS-involved youth and youth whose families participated in social welfare benefit programs in Wisconsin to examine how a range of maltreatment and OHC experiences are associated with social, educational, and economic outcomes in emerging adulthood, including employment and earnings, benefit receipt, educational attainment, fertility timing, incarceration, paying close attention to the type(s) of maltreatment experienced as well as OHC placement characteristics (type, length, number of placements) and type of exit from OHC (aging out, reunification or adoption). Finally, we will examine the extent to which young adult parents who experienced childhood CPS involvement or OHC are likely to become the subject of a CPS investigation or OHC placement regarding their own children. This research extends prior work in this area by using multiple identification strategies and comparison (counterfactual) groups to reduce bias in estimated associations of both maltreatment and OHC with subsequent outcomes. It has implications for informing policy and practice to better prepare CPS-involved youth to successfully transition to adulthood and, thereby, for reducing subsequent public expenditures on this population.