Unlabelled: Disasters share a common potential for significant ecological and psychosocial disruption at the individual, community, and societal levels, and are especially harmful to members of social groups in vulnerable situations, including youth in foster care and those recently emancipated from care. These young people are susceptible to mental health challenges and understanding their resiliency is key to mitigating pandemic-related harms. This qualitative study aims to (1) understand how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the mental health of older youth between the ages of 18 and 23 ( = 20.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs a marginalized, underresourced population, older youth with foster care experience are acutely vulnerable to the economic and social harms wrought by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study summarizes findings from an online survey deployed in April 2020 to learn about the experiences of current and former foster youth (ages 18-23) during 1 month of the COVID-19 crisis. Using snowball sampling and a cross-sectional design, the survey yielded a final analysis sample of 281 respondents from 32 states and 192 cities or districts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Homeless, runaway, and youth exiting foster care are vulnerable to sexual exploitation, but little research has parsed the societal, community, and individual factors that contribute to their risk.
Objectives: (1) To estimate child welfare characteristics in a sample of homeless young people who engaged in commercial sex (CS); and (2) To compare young people who were sex trafficked (ST) to those who engaged in some other form of CS.
Participants And Setting: This study includes 98 homeless young people in Philadelphia, PA, Phoenix, AZ, and Washington, DC, who were interviewed for a larger study of ST and endorsed engagement in CS.