On measures of mental health and functional outcomes, foster children are among our most troubled youth. If not reunited with their biological parents or adopted by another family while still a minor, these youth are on their own at age 18, when they age out of the foster care system. Few research studies have been conducted to learn exactly why it is that the children have so many problems and what, if any, benefit they might obtain from participation in independent living programs both before and after emancipation. In the proposed series of studies, I will first interview former foster youth about their experiences and needs. Then I will mine the existing information on foster youth from two of Arizona's statewide databases, the Children's Information Library Data Source database, which tracks all kids in state care, and the Post-Discharge Questionnaire database, which tracks youth who have already aged out of care. The eventual utility of this exploratory work is to develop and then test experimentally an intervention for former foster youth that attempts to ease their transition to adulthood. ? ? ?
