Transcript Foster Youth Seen and Heard: Indicator Development Using Personal Narratives from Foster Care

Children and Family
Research Center
Foster Youth Seen and Heard:
Indicator Development Using
Personal Narratives from Foster Care
Dayna Finet, Ph.D., Jesse Helton, M.A. and Wendy Haight, Ph.D.
University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign
International Society of Child Indicators, Chicago
June 26—28, 2007
School of Social Work
TM
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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title Indicators
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Child
Welfare
Data Sources
National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System
(NCANDS)
Adoption and Foster Care Reporting System
(AFCARS)
National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well Being
(NSCAW)
Illinois Child Well Being Survey
(National Youth in Transition Database) (NYTD)
Child Welfare Indicators
Indicators Measured
Safety (Reported and substantiated maltreatment)
Stability (Number and duration of placements)
Continuity (Maintenance of kin and community ties)
Permanence (Reunification, adoption, guardianship)
Well Being (Health, education, and economic status)
Youth Involvement: Project
FYSH
Purposes
To bring perspective of foster children and youth into
research and policy processes
To give foster children and youth a structured and
supportive opportunity for self expression
Program Organization
Part time employment at CFRC
Weekly writing workshops, Fall 2006 and Spring 2007
Case Study in Indicator
Development
Research Participants
Four participants from local pregnant and/or parenting
independent living program, all with children
Data Sources
FYSH participants’ written narratives
In-depth, semi-structured interviews
Three videotaped workshop sessions
Analysis
Initial analysis of written narratives, interview and
video transcripts, with formal coding Summer 2007
Case Study in Indicator
Development
Focus on Foster Youth as Parents
Engagement in FYSH – mean number of workshops
attended by FYSH mothers was 12, compared to mean
workshop attendance of 4 for non-mothers
Parenting as emergent theme – not assigned in writing
workshops or prompted during interviews, yet emerged
as dominant central theme across data sources
Parenting in Foster Care
Illinois Child Well Being Study (Hartnett &
Bruhn, 2006)
Ever Been Pregnant* (Percent of Respondents)
Illinois
National
Females 12 – 15
9
32
Females 16 – 17
18
N/A
Males 12 – 15
0
20
Males 16 – 17
14
N/A
Parenting in Foster Care
Midwest Evaluation of Former Foster Youth
(Illinois) (Courtney & Dworsky, 2006)
Percent of Respondents
Have Children
Living With Children
All Respondents
25.6
71.7
Female
33.3
94.4
Males
15.9
11.1
IDCFS Pregnant and/or
Parenting Program
Purpose
Provides supportive services and living maintenance to pregnant
and/or parenting youth for whom IDCFS is legally responsible
Services
Counseling, health care, parent training, paternity outreach,
respite, daycare
Financial provisions
Living maintenance, medical care, financial assistance
Implications
Early parenthood as risk factor but
also source of joy, pride, and
motivation
“I felt like nothing…, but then I got pregnant. And it was hard, but I
went to church and got into a lot of positive community support
programs and all of a sudden my life got better and I was no more
a failure and I was no more ignorant. I was me. I found myself and
I let go of all the pain that I went through and I started to live my
life. I was a woman and a human being all over again. … I had
goals and dreams.
For the first time in my life I felt like somebody.”
Implications
DCFS as protective factor but also source
of humiliation and fear
“…my number one thing that I am afraid of is my children
being taken away from me. It scares me so much because me
being taken from my mother, and I know how it feels to be
bounced around from home to home and to not have a real
mother figure in your life like your own. I don’t ever want my
kids to feel that pain. Not only that, but having kids when you
are already in the system, its like you are under a microscope.
The world has the perception that because my mother did
something wrong, that I will too. If my kids were taken from
me, I’m not sure what’d do!
My kids are my life and they are what I live for.”
FYSH in Research and
Practice
Continuing FYSH Research
Formal research agenda based on FYSH data archive
Applications for Indicator Research
Subjective experience, in narrative form, as methodology to
inform indicator development
Applications for Child Welfare Practice
Focus on specific circumstances and needs of pregnant
and/or parenting foster youth, as well as other subgroups
transitioning from care
Contact Information
Dayna Finet ▪ [email protected] ▪ 217.265.0192
Jesse Helton ▪ [email protected] ▪ 217.333.5837
Wendy Haight ▪ [email protected] ▪ 217.244.5212
Children and Family Research Center ▪
http://cfrcwww.social.uiuc.edu
School of Social Work, University of Illinois ▪
http://www.socialwork.uiuc.edu/