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Youth Aging Out of Foster
Care
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Approximately 20,000 youth age out of foster care each year.
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37% of foster youth aged 17–20 had not completed high school degree
or received a GED. They more often suffer from mental health problems,
they more often become involved in crime or are victims of crime, and they
are more frequently homeless.
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12% of the youth reported being homeless at least once since leaving care.
- Foster youth are less likely to be employed than their peers; they are
more likely to rely on public assistance; and they earn, on average, too
little to escape poverty.
- Only about two-fifths of eligible foster youth receive federal independent
living services. Although the budget of $140 million is double that from
prior programs, it still translates into at most about $1,400 per eligible
youth per year. Even if states used all of the funds made available for housing,
for example, they could only spend about $700 per youth per year.
Source: D. Wayne Osgood, E. Michael Foster, Constance Flanagan, and Gretchen
Ruth, editors, On Your Own without a
Net: the Transition to Adulthood for Vulnerable Populations (chapter
2, Courtney and Hughes Heuring). Click
here for a brief of the chapter.
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Juvenile Justice
The U.S. juvenile justice system processes more than 2.5 million juvenile
arrests each year, and makes decisions about nearly 5,000 delinquency cases each
day . The juvenile justice system will touch the lives of up to 10% of
American youth aged 10–17, a figure that has nearly quadrupled in the
last few decades.
Only 12% of formerly incarcerated youth had a high school diploma or GED
by young adulthood, compared with a national average of 74%. Only about 30%
were in either school or a job one year after their release. Delinquent youth
are seven times more likely to have a history of unemployment and welfare
dependence as an adult, and they are more likely to be divorced and to bear
children outside of marriage.
Often what distinguishes those who succeed after leaving the juvenile justice
system is acquiring a set of skills and, equally important, developing the
maturity to use those skills effectively. Successful programs, as measured
by recidivism, are those that emphasize interpersonal skill training and
cognitive-behavioral counseling. Such programs develop positive social patterns
of reasoning by maintaining a focus on managing anger, assuming personal
responsibility, taking an empathetic perspective, solving problems, setting
goals, and acquiring life skills.
The system affects African Americans disproportionately: Black youth make
up about 15% of the general juvenile population but account for 30% of juvenile
arrests and 45% of adolescents in residential placement. In contrast, white
teens account for 80% of general youth population but 65% of juvenile arrests.
20% of juveniles arrested had serious mental health problems
For more information on juvenile justice, see the Network
on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice
Source: D. Wayne Osgood, E. Michael Foster, Constance Flanagan, and Gretchen
Ruth, editors, On Your Own without a
Net: the Transition to Adulthood for Vulnerable Populations (chapter
3, He Len Chung, et al., and chapter 4, David Altschuler). Click
here for a brief of the chapter.
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Young Adults with Mental
Health Issues
In 2001 about 18% of, or about 4.3 million, teens aged 12–17 received
treatment for mental health problems. Many will carry these problems with
them into adulthood.
Although the likelihood of a mental disorder following one into adulthood
is quite high, service use drops off as youth move into adulthood. Among
the population receiving mental health care in 1997, 13% receiving outpatient
services were teens compared with only 10% of young adults aged 18–24.
Among those receiving inpatient or residential care, the gap was even greater;
38% of teens were receiving such care compared with 18% of young adults.
Part of the decline in service use stems from the abrupt system changes that
occur at age 18 or 21. Young adults typically find themselves cut off from
the services they had received as teens, and the service options before them
as adults are fragmented and complex.
Youth with mental health issues are at a higher risk of dropping out of
high school, not finishing college, having unplanned pregnancies, abusing
drugs or alcohol, and being unemployed. They are also more likely to have
a criminal past. About 24%–39% of youth with mental disorders experience
at least one of these outcomes compared with 7%–10% of those without
disorders.
Source: D. Wayne Osgood, E. Michale Foster, Constance Flanagan, and Gretchen
Ruth, editors, On Your Own without a
Net: the Transition to Adulthood for Vulnerable Populations(chapter
10, J. Heidi Gralinski-Bakker et al., and chapter 11, Lyons and Melton ). Click
here for a brief of the chapter.
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Young Ex-Offenders
See also Christopher Uggen’s Commentary on African American men in
prison. http://www.transad.pop.upenn.edu/blog
The incarceration rate for young adults aged 20-24 in the adult prison system
nearly doubled in the last decade: from 652 to 1173 per 100,000.
These youth will eventually return to communities. About 100,000 young adults
aged 18-24 will be released from prison (adult) in 2004. About 1 million
individuals aged 18–24 were under probation supervision in 2002.
The likelihood of serving time prior to one’s 25 th birthday, is roughly
2% for white males, 15% for black males, and 7% for Hispanic males [Bureau
of Justice; see Raphael’s chapter in the forthcoming Economics of
the Transition to Adulthood by the Networkpreliminary chapter COMING
SOON]
National survey data and interviews with young inmates in Minnesota prisons
show that among those under age 25, one-fourth had spent some time in their
childhood living in public housing, and nearly half (46.5%) said their parents
or guardians had received public assistance. About 16% had been in foster
care or institutional homes, and one-third reported that their parent or
guardian had abused alcohol or drugs. The youth themselves also often had
a drug or alcohol history. In addition, nearly one-third (31%) reported that
a parent had spent time in prison or jail.
Only about 10% of all inmates participate in education, vocational, or treatment
programs on a given day.
A cost-benefit analysis shows that the most beneficial programs, in terms
of reduced recidivism and future savings from reduced crime, were in-prison
vocational programs, which yielded savings of $2,835 per offender, followed
closely by adult basic education ($1,852). Work release programs and job
counseling were still cost-effective, but the savings were significantly
less.
Source: D. Wayne Osgood, E. Michale Foster, Constance Flanagan, and Gretchen
Ruth, editors, On Your Own without a
Net: the Transition to Adulthood for Vulnerable Populations. (chapter
5, Uggen and Wakefield, and chapter 6, Travis and Visher.) Click
here for a brief of the chapter.
Homeless Youth
In a study of 16–24-year old homeless youth in Vancouver and Toronto
in 1992:
85% of homeless youth aged 18 or older in the study did not graduate from
high school;
30% had not even completed their first year of high school.
The vast majority first left high school because they were expelled.
Almost one-third of youth had never lived with both biological parents,
approximately 60% had lived in three or more different family situations,
and 20% had lived in six or more.
Only 14% of 16-24-year old the youth surveyed reported that they were in
school, and their employment records were similarly spotty. Only 10% worked
consistently full-time since leaving home, and about 29% had worked in a
nontemporary job; yet, about 17% were working at the time of the study. Predictably,
youth often resorted to panhandling, trading sex for food or shelter, stealing,
and drug trafficking to survive. Some of these youth also sustained themselves
with government support.
Some of these youth do experience modest success in the legal labor market.
Nearly one in five was working fairly steadily, and another 59% of the unemployed
youth were actively seeking work. In addition to a paycheck, employment exposes
street youth to friends and contacts who also work, helping to extract them
from the stigma and criminality of street culture.
Source: D. Wayne Osgood, E. Michael Foster, Constance Flanagan, and Gretchen
Ruth, editors, On Your Own without a
Net: the Transition to Adulthood for Vulnerable Populations. (chapter
7, Hagan and McCarthy). Click
here for a brief of the chapter
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Youth with Disabilities
and Serious Health Concerns
Ethnic minorities sustain more disability with more limitations than white
youth, and poor families with less-educated parents or single parents are
more likely to have children with disabling conditions.
A survey of 1,300 youth with disabilities aged 14–25 by the Pacer
Center revealed that fewer than one-half of the respondents had received
any guidance about making medical decisions, nor had they ever been asked
about their work plans. Another study of youth with sickle cell disease found
that one of the youths’ main concerns was that the transition planning
had not begun soon enough.
Findings from a Minnesota Transition Center study in 1999 identified 126
programs that offered transition services for those with special health needs.
Most programs focused on disease management and did not address other relevant
issues, such as independence, continuing education, or job training.
In the Pacer study, all those interviewed placed job training as their most
important need, followed closely by independent living skills and vocational
guidance.
Although about 79% of young adults aged 18–30 were in the labor force
between 1994 and 1995, 72% of those with mild disabilities were working,
and only 39% of those with severe disabilities were working.
Source: D. Wayne Osgood, E. Michale Foster, Constance Flanagan, and Gretchen
Ruth, editors, On Your Own without a
Net: the Transition to Adulthood for Vulnerable Populations. (chapter
12, Blum, and chapter 13, Haydock White and Gallay). Click
here for a brief of the chapter.
Health Care Access for Young Adults with Disabilities
Today, 90% of children with disabilities or special health care needs survive
into adulthood, and they account for one-half of all health care expenditures
for children, even though they represent about 15%–18% of all American
children.
Medicaid is the major source of health insurance for low-income youth, and,
as of 1999, it was the source of health insurance for 80% of adults under
age 65 with severe disabilities.
Obtaining one’s own insurance as an adult is often prohibitively expensive,
and many insurers turn down individuals with conditions such as asthma, HIV,
or cancer, or they face premium surcharges. Some states have created high
risk pools to cover individuals who require extensive care. However, various
restrictions have limited the numbers in these pools to only about one million.
About half the states offer condition-specific coverage for one or more genetic
diseases such as cystic fibrosis, hemophilia, and sickle cell disease. However,
eligibility requires that the young adult be enrolled since childhood. In
short, many private plans are either too expensive, have limited benefits,
and are often offered for a limited time.
Source: D. Wayne Osgood, E. Michale Foster, Constance Flanagan, and Gretchen
Ruth, editors, On Your Own without a
Net: the Transition to Adulthood for Vulnerable Populations (chapter
13, White and Gallay). Click
here for a brief of the chapter
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