Emerging Adulthood for Maltreated and Foster Youth

摘要 到18岁时，美国13%的青少年被确定为至少一次儿童伤害事件的受害者。 虐待或忽视儿童保护服务（CPS）和6%的经历了家庭外照顾（OHC）。为 黑人青年，这些比率是惊人的21%和12%。而大多数年轻人依赖父母或家人 在向成年过渡期间，成员需要经济和情感支持，这通常不是一个选择， 有虐待和OHC历史的青年，其家庭关系可能破裂。然而， 关于虐待和OHC的大量研究集中在成年期，以及先前的研究结果 与OHC对以后结果的潜在影响不一致，强调需要密切关注 检查OHC经验的异质性。OHC经验的许多特点可能会影响长期的 发展，包括安置类型、安置人数、青年是否被团聚、收养或 继续留在OHC，直到成年（“年龄”的照顾）。先前的研究往往过于简化了这一巨大的 体验的多样性。更好地理解虐待的作用和人道主义法的经验， 成年期将为参与社区服务方案的青年提供有关方案拟订和政策决定的新见解。的 拟议的研究将使用全州范围内的，纵向的，行政数据集，包括整个人口的 CPS参与青年和青年的家庭参加了社会福利计划在威斯康星州， 研究一系列虐待和OHC的经验是如何与社会，教育， 成年后的经济成果，包括就业和收入、福利金领取、教育 成绩，生育时间，监禁，密切关注所经历的虐待类型， 以及OHC安置特征（类型、长度、安置数量）和OHC退出类型（老化 （二）统一或收养。最后，我们将研究年轻的成年父母在多大程度上， 有经验的儿童CPS参与或OHC可能成为CPS调查的对象， OHC安置自己的孩子。这项研究扩展了以前在这一领域的工作， 识别策略和比较（反事实）组，以减少估计关联的偏差 虐待和OHC以及随后的结果。它对指导政策和实践具有影响， 更好地准备参与CPS的青年成功地过渡到成年，从而减少 随后的公共支出。

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.