Children in the foster care system face a slew of challenges ranging from instability in the home to uncertain access to food and limited prospects for higher education. The current structure of resources and programming in the system has proven thus far to be insufficient to address these and other concerns of the youth it purports to serve. Relying on primary accounts of foster care youth themselves, Aidan Hamilton looks at the role participation in structured summer experiences has on their outlook and self-reported outcomes.
2021 alone saw more than 600,000 children interact with the American foster care system (USAFacts, 2023). Permanent or otherwise, placement in foster care is linked to extreme deficiencies in positive outcomes; throughout the system there is a need for targeted solutions which address the causes of these deficiencies (Engler et al., 2020; Jackson et al., 2015). Among the options available for this purpose is accessibility to summer camp experiences, as preliminary research suggests that structured summer programming can keep youth from engaging in delinquency and providing them with valuable life experiences in the process (Merryman et al., 2012). The extent of this phenomenon and the resulting outcomes for foster youth remains an open question, however.
As a baseline for comparison, initiatives focusing on “placement stability” and “sibling unification” have proven to be effective means of improving outcomes for foster youth. The former, placement stability, references the frequency of home changes and duration of the stay experienced by the youth in that placement (Pecora, 2012). The latter, as the name would suggest, is the extent to which siblings are kept in the same home regardless of their transfer from one to another (Washington, 2007). Both are known impactors on foster youth well-being and outcomes; the more stable the placement and the more unified the siblings, the better.
Does the same positive impact result when it comes to providing foster youth with access to summer camp programming? Looking at the data procured for this research, there are many indicators that yes, indeed it does. The first to note can be seen in Graph 1. Here, I juxtaposed three sets of testimonials- two from individuals in the foster care system and one from a group discussing childhood trauma. Compared to the other groups, the sample of foster youth who had participated in summer programming reported having more positive experiences and fewer negative ones. This is based on the coding of their language based on tone. Positive is marked by yellow, negative by grey.
Unfortunately, the quantity of data which could be obtained did not allow for a more detailed statistical analysis; we cannot draw any extrapolative conclusions as a result. What it does show us, however, is a clear pattern between the testimonials we do have access to. We can see the broad strokes of what is happening here from the birds-eye view of this tonal analysis.
Now, this is all devoid of the context in which the language is used. Sure, we can code verbiage as positive or negative in the accounts of individuals from shared circumstances. To best comprehend what is going on here, however, we need some context by looking at and comparing individual testimonials to one another; to that end I selected seven sources between the two foster groups with sufficient similarities to control for certain factors- placement stability, sibling unification, ethnicity and sexual orientation. Sources with comparable experiences outside of their participation in summer programming were analyzed against one another.
The results tend to confirm what we saw in the tonal analysis and frequency distribution. Between two sources involving individuals in the LGBTQ community, the one who partook in summer camp had a much more positive outlook and reported better outcomes. The same held true for two people who had experienced discrimination due to their ethnic identities and when controlling for placement stability and sibling unification. There was one case comparison among these, however, which found the summer programming youth to be at a disadvantage to their peer without access to the same experiences.
Caveat: we CANNOT make any conclusions about the overall population of foster youth. Still, put together, the insights gathered in this study suggest that participation in structured summer programming leads to better outcomes and self-reported outlooks for youth in the foster care system. The nature of the data and analysis supports the notion that it can serve as a valuable tool for social workers who want to address the needs of an incredibly vulnerable population.
Sources
Engler, A. D., Sarpong, K., Van Horne, B. S., Greeley, C. S., & Keefe, R. J. (2020). A Systematic
review of mental health disorders of children in foster care. Trauma, Violence & Abuse, 23(1), 255–264. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838020941197
Jackson, Y., Cushing, C. C., Gabrielli, J., Fleming, K., O’Connor, B. M., & Huffhines, L. (2015).
Child Maltreatment, Trauma, and Physical Health Outcomes: The role of abuse type and
placement moves on health conditions and service use for youth in foster care. Journal of
Pediatric Psychology, 41(1), 28–36. https://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/jsv066
Pecora, P. J. (2012). Maximizing educational achievement of youth in foster care and alumni:
Factors associated with success. Children and Youth Services Review, 34(6), 1121–1129.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2012.01.044
USAFacts. (2023, August 23). How many kids are in foster care in the US? USAFacts.
https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-kids-are-in-foster-care/
Washington, K. (2017, June 12). Wiley Online Library | Scientific Research Articles, journals, …
Wiley Online Library. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2206.2006.
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