This application for a KO1 Career Development Award seeks five years of support for education and research activities that will prepare Dr. Justeen Hyde to examine the consequences of child abuse and neglect among adolescents in the foster care system in Los Angeles. Previous research has identified children in foster care with histories of abuse and neglect as a population at high risk for a number of developmental and behavioral problems. Researchers, child welfare advocates and journalists have demonstrated that child welfare programs often fail to address the complex needs of maltreated youth. Given the scarcity of published data on adolescents in foster care, the proposed research and education activities are designed to build a foundation of knowledge about the experience of foster care from multiple perspectives. Education and training activities include: coursework in child/adolescent development, public policy making, and quantitative research methods; participation in formal trainings offered to social workers and foster parents/guardians; and one-on-one mentorship provided by an interdiscplinary group of advisors at the University of Southern California, among others. These activities will prepare her to conduct an ethnographic study of young adolescents, ages 12 to 15, entering foster care for the first time.
The specific aims of the proposed research are to: 1) document the histories of maltreatment among adolescents entering foster care for the first time, particularly the age at which maltreatment was first experienced and the types and frequency of abuse; 2) characterize maltreated adolescents' experiences entering and adapting to foster care; 3) identify mediating factors among maltreated adolescents that influence variations in behavioral, emotional and psychological adaptations to foster care placements over time; 4) explore, from multiple perspectives, the most pressing needs of adolescents entering foster care for the first time and appropriate strategies for addressing these needs. A total of 30 adolescents will be recruited from two types of placements and interviewed at three points in time over a 6-month period. A subsample will be recruited for in-depth case studies, which include interviews with case managers and guardians. This project will provide depth to current understandings of the consequences of abuse and neglect on adolescents in foster care. Study findings will be widely disseminated to a range of key stakeholders.
