IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v83y2017icp57-67.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Conceptualizing on-campus support programs for collegiate foster youth and alumni: A plan for action

Author

Listed:
  • Jay Miller, J.
  • Benner, Kalea
  • Kheibari, Athena
  • Washington, Earl

Abstract

Increasingly, post-secondary education institutions are implementing supplemental support programs to assist foster youth and alumni (i.e., those formerly in foster care) matriculating into higher education. Despite the promise of these academic support programs in helping young people achieve their educational goals, the empirical educational research literature related to these support programs is nominal. This study employed Concept Mapping (CM) with a convenience sample of 51 foster youth/alumni in one southeastern state to explicate a conceptual framework for the development of campus supports for collegiate foster youth/alumni, and examine priority areas (e.g., importance and feasibility). CM is a mixed-method research approach that employs non-metric multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analyses to analyze qualitative data. As a result, visual representations of the data are computed. The final cluster map yielded an eight cluster solution: Campus Awareness, Advocacy, Data Tracking, Pre-College Supports, Fostering Family Connections, Academic Financing, Campus Life, and Peer/Mentor Supports. Foster youth/alumni in this study perceived the Pre-College Supports cluster as most feasible, while the Advocacy cluster was rated at the least feasible. The Academic Financing cluster was rated as the most important; the Campus Life cluster was rated as the least important. After a review of pertinent literature, this paper explicates CM methodology as applied to the current study, reports results, and discusses lessons learned as they apply to child welfare research and practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Jay Miller, J. & Benner, Kalea & Kheibari, Athena & Washington, Earl, 2017. "Conceptualizing on-campus support programs for collegiate foster youth and alumni: A plan for action," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 57-67.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:83:y:2017:i:c:p:57-67
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.10.028
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740917307612
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.10.028?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hernandez, Liliana & Naccarato, Toni, 2010. "Scholarships and supports available to foster care alumni: A study of 12 programs across the US," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 758-766, May.
    2. Miller, J. Jay & Jones, Blake, 2015. "Using concept mapping as a planning tool: Child welfare citizen review panels," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 99-106.
    3. Day, Angelique & Riebschleger, Joanne & Dworsky, Amy & Damashek, Amy & Fogarty, Kieran, 2012. "Maximizing educational opportunities for youth aging out of foster care by engaging youth voices in a partnership for social change," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 1007-1014.
    4. Ahrens, Kym R. & DuBois, David Lane & Garrison, Michelle & Spencer, Renee & Richardson, Laura P. & Lozano, Paula, 2011. "Qualitative exploration of relationships with important non-parental adults in the lives of youth in foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 1012-1023, June.
    5. Pecora, Peter J., 2012. "Maximizing educational achievement of youth in foster care and alumni: Factors associated with success," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1121-1129.
    6. Vacca, James S., 2008. "Breaking the cycle of academic failure for foster children -- What can the schools do to help?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(9), pages 1081-1087, September.
    7. Rosas, Scott R. & Camphausen, Lauren C., 2007. "The use of concept mapping for scale development and validation in evaluation," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 125-135, May.
    8. Trochim, William M. K., 1989. "Concept mapping : Soft science or hard art?," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 87-110, January.
    9. Stein, Mike, 2006. "Young people aging out of care: The poverty of theory," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 422-434, April.
    10. Dworsky, Amy & Pérez, Alfred, 2010. "Helping former foster youth graduate from college through campus support programs," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 255-263, February.
    11. Kirk, Rosalind & Day, Angelique, 2011. "Increasing college access for youth aging out of foster care: Evaluation of a summer camp program for foster youth transitioning from high school to college," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(7), pages 1173-1180, July.
    12. Greeson, Johanna K.P. & Usher, Lynn & Grinstein-Weiss, Michal, 2010. "One adult who is crazy about you: Can natural mentoring relationships increase assets among young adults with and without foster care experience?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 565-577, April.
    13. Graham, Kara E. & Schellinger, Annie R. & Vaughn, Lisa M., 2015. "Developing strategies for positive change: Transitioning foster youth to adulthood," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 71-79.
    14. Greeson, Johanna K.P. & Bowen, Natasha K., 2008. ""She holds my hand" The experiences of foster youth with their natural mentors," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(10), pages 1178-1188, October.
    15. Ferguson, H. Bruce & Wolkow, Katherine, 2012. "Educating children and youth in care: A review of barriers to school progress and strategies for change," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1143-1149.
    16. Munson, Michelle R. & McMillen, J. Curtis, 2009. "Natural mentoring and psychosocial outcomes among older youth transitioning from foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 104-111, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Okpych, Nathanael J. & Park, Sunggeun (Ethan) & Sayed, Samiya & Courtney, Mark E., 2020. "The roles of Campus-Support Programs (CSPs) and Education and Training Vouchers (ETVs) on college persistence for youth with foster care histories," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Salazar, Amy M. & Roe, Stephanie S. & Ullrich, Jessica S. & Haggerty, Kevin P., 2016. "Professional and youth perspectives on higher education-focused interventions for youth transitioning from foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 23-34.
    2. Geiger, Jennifer M. & Piel, Megan Hayes & Day, Angelique & Schelbe, Lisa, 2018. "A descriptive analysis of programs serving foster care alumni in higher education: Challenges and opportunities," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 287-294.
    3. Thompson, Allison E. & Greeson, Johanna K.P. & Brunsink, Ashleigh M., 2016. "Natural mentoring among older youth in and aging out of foster care: A systematic review," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 40-50.
    4. Miller, J. Jay & Benner, Kalea & Donohue-Dioh, Jessica & Segress, Melissa, 2019. "Supporting collegiate foster youth and alumni: A mixed-method planning approach for higher education," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 67-76.
    5. Blakeslee, Jennifer & Miller, Rebecca & Uretsky, Mathew, 2022. "Efficacy of the Project Futures self-determination coaching model for college students with foster care backgrounds and mental health challenges," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    6. Blakeslee, Jennifer E., 2015. "Measuring the support networks of transition-age foster youth: Preliminary validation of a social network assessment for research and practice," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 123-134.
    7. Villegas, Susy & Rosenthal, James & O'Brien, Kirk & Pecora, Peter J., 2014. "Educational outcomes for adults formerly in foster care: The role of ethnicity," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 42-52.
    8. Kelly, Cara & Thornton, Anthony & Anthony, Elizabeth K. & Krysik, Judy, 2021. "“Love. Stability. Boundaries.” Kinship perspectives of social-emotional well-being of youth residing in out-of-home care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    9. Greeson, Johanna K.P. & Garcia, Antonio R. & Kim, Minseop & Thompson, Allison E. & Courtney, Mark E., 2015. "Development & maintenance of social support among aged out foster youth who received independent living services: Results from the Multi-Site Evaluation of Foster Youth Programs," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 1-9.
    10. Okland, Idun & Oterholm, Inger, 2022. "Strengthening supportive networks for care leavers: A scoping review of social support interventions in child welfare services," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    11. Woodgate, Roberta L. & Morakinyo, Oluwatobiloba & Martin, Katrina M., 2017. "Interventions for youth aging out of care: A scoping review," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 280-300.
    12. Strolin-Goltzman, Jessica & Woodhouse, Valerie & Suter, Jesse & Werrbach, Matt, 2016. "A mixed method study on educational well-being and resilience among youth in foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 30-36.
    13. Kinarsky, Alana R., 2017. "Fostering success: Understanding the experience of foster youth undergraduates," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 220-228.
    14. Phillips, Lee Ann & Powers, Laurie E. & Geenen, Sarah & Schmidt, Jessica & Winges-Yanez, Nichole & McNeely, Isha Charlie & Merritt, Lindsay & Williamson, Candis & Turner, Shannon & Zweben, Harry & Bod, 2015. "Better Futures: A validated model for increasing postsecondary preparation and participation of youth in foster care with mental health challenges," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 50-59.
    15. Salazar, Amy M. & Haggerty, Kevin P. & Roe, Stephanie S., 2016. "Fostering Higher Education: A postsecondary access and retention intervention for youth with foster care experience," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 46-56.
    16. Unrau, Yvonne A. & Dawson, Ann & Hamilton, Ronicka D. & Bennett, Jamie L., 2017. "Perceived value of a campus-based college support program by students who aged out of foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 64-73.
    17. Opsal, Tara & Eman, Rebecca, 2018. "Invisible vulnerability: Participant perceptions of a campus-based program for students without caregivers," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 617-627.
    18. Day, Angelique & Riebschleger, Joanne & Dworsky, Amy & Damashek, Amy & Fogarty, Kieran, 2012. "Maximizing educational opportunities for youth aging out of foster care by engaging youth voices in a partnership for social change," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 1007-1014.
    19. Sulimani-Aidan, Yafit, 2016. "In between formal and informal: Staff and youth relationships in care and after leaving care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 43-49.
    20. Jackson, M. Sebrena & Dozier, Krystal & Colvin, Alex D. & Bullock, Angela N., 2022. "Exploring the self-efficacy of foster youth participating in a pre-college summer program," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Foster youth; Post-secondary education;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:83:y:2017:i:c:p:57-67. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.