Department of Sociology and Criminology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
Child Maltreatment Solutions Network, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
Trauma Violence Abuse. 2023 Oct;24(4):2711-2725. doi: 10.1177/15248380221111481. Epub 2022 Jun 30.
Children in foster care face heightened risk of adverse psychosocial and economic outcomes compared with children in the general population. Yet, the effects of foster care as an intervention are heterogeneous. Heterogeneity outcomes by race and ethnicity are of particular interest, given that Black and Indigenous youth experience foster care at higher rates than other racial/ethnic groups and experience group differences in setting, duration, and exits to permanency. This meta-regression explores racial disparities in education, employment, mental health, and behavioral outcomes during and following foster care. A systematic search of PsycINFO, ERIC, and Academic Search Complete using a series of search terms for studies published between January 2000 and June 2021 found 70 articles and 392 effect sizes that provided outcomes of US-based foster care by race/ethnicity. Findings reveal that Black foster care impacted persons (FCIPs) have 20% lower odds (95% CI: .68-.93) of achieving employment or substantial financial earnings and have 18% lower odds (95% CI: .68-1.00) of mental health concerns compared to White FCIPs. Hispanic FCIPs have 10% lower odds (95% CI: .84-.97) of achieving stable housing compared to non-Hispanic FCIPs. Moderator analyses revealed certain study features (i.e. publication type, timing of the study, location of the study, and placement status of the participants) have a significant impact on the gap between Black and non-Black and Hispanic and non-Hispanic FCIPs. The findings provide important implications for racial disparities in foster care outcomes, as well as highlight important gaps and missing information from published studies.
与普通人群中的儿童相比，寄养儿童面临更高的不良心理社会和经济后果风险。然而，寄养作为一种干预措施的效果存在异质性。鉴于黑人和原住民青年比其他种族/族裔群体更有可能经历寄养，并且在寄养安置、持续时间和永久性退出方面存在群体差异，因此，按种族和族裔划分的异质性结果尤其令人关注。这项荟萃回归分析探讨了在寄养期间和之后，教育、就业、心理健康和行为结果方面的种族差异。使用一系列用于搜索 2000 年 1 月至 2021 年 6 月期间发表的研究的搜索词，对 PsycINFO、ERIC 和 Academic Search Complete 进行了系统搜索，共找到 70 篇文章和 392 个效应量，这些文章和效应量提供了基于美国的按种族/族裔划分的寄养结果。研究结果表明，与白人寄养受抚养人（FCIP）相比，黑人 FCIP 实现就业或获得大量经济收入的可能性低 20%（95%置信区间：.68-.93），心理健康问题的可能性低 18%（95%置信区间：.68-1.00）。与非西班牙裔 FCIP 相比，西班牙裔 FCIP 获得稳定住房的可能性低 10%（95%置信区间：.84-.97）。调节分析表明，某些研究特征（即发表类型、研究时间、研究地点和参与者的安置状况）对黑人和非黑人以及西班牙裔和非西班牙裔 FCIP 之间的差距有重大影响。这些发现对寄养结果中的种族差异具有重要意义，并突出了发表研究中的重要差距和信息缺失。
