Youth aged out of care: their perceptions of their experiences in out-of-home care

2020 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.Child out-of-home care in the United States is dating back to the early nineteenth century. Since then out of home care has taken different forms and shapes. This journey of evolution has been combined with a lot of controversy due to the ongoing debate over the best interest of child within the continuum of care. This continuum of care ranged from the most restrictive approach represented by residential care, to the least restrictive approach, represented by kin ship care or foster family. Ironically, the out-of-home care literature in The United States as well as in the other western countries, indicates its poor outcomes when it comes to education, employment and housing. This study drew attention to the importance of social support, educational support, and family-like practices to improve outcomes for youth aging out-of-care. Suggestions by the youth on how to improve out-of-home care were also collected and reported. Significant differences were found between each of the concepts of social support, family-like experiences and total support and the length of time in out-of-home care. Those youth with fewer years of out-of-home care reported more support. Social relationships also were stressed among children, peers, caregivers, and professionals due to the influence they may have on cared-after children lives. Findings may fill some of the gap in the literature available on social relationship dynamics in out-of-home care environments. Findings may also help caregivers and professionals understand social relationships dynamics and their effects on ageing out of care youth outcomes. Suggestions were provided to policy makers and decision makers in providing the needed services to children in foster care