Challenges Facing Foster Youth

The transition from adolescence to adulthood is difficult for most youth. However, foster youth face an extra set of challenges that severely impact their opportunities to develop into independent and stable adults. Foster youth are most often removed from the care of their parents due to neglect and abuse. Disturbingly, many of these young people move from one abusive situation to another. While there are many wonderful people who open their homes to foster youth, statistics show that, often, these youth face worse situations in foster care than in the homes from which they'be been removed.

Mental & Emotional Challenges

Many foster youth experience mental and emotional health issues that follow them into adulthood. Their childhoods are often marked by instability and the lack of caring adult role models. Many of their parents have substance abuse problems or have been incarcerated. Sometimes the initial trauma of removal from their homes is followed by a series of unstable placements with different caregivers and multiple settings. In California, 77% of foster youth experience three or more placements; research has shown that placement instability is associated with negative outcomes such as behavior and mental health problems, poor academic performance, and delinquency in males.

Instability and Lack of Attachments

Another result of multiple placements is that youth become disengaged from their caregivers and other adults. Many of them never have the opportunity to develop and experience the kind of trusting relationships with caring adults that we sometimes take for granted. Individuals with an attachment disorder will have difficulties in many areas, but most significantly in developing trusting personal relationships.

Violence and Abuse

The lives of foster youth are disproportionately marked by violence. Some foster youth who have been removed from their families because of violence are retraumatized by violence or abuse while in foster care. For example, over 40% reported reported “severe physical punishment” while in care. Additionally, 15% reported that they had been sexually abused while in foster care.