Abstract
Current literature highlights the struggle for obtaining a permanent family for youth who are in care. Barriers including age, race, and behavioral problems of the youth, in addition to parental problems, such as mental health concerns and drug use, influence a child’s likelihood of achieving permanency, making it more difficult to obtain that legal status, and resulting in these youth aging out of the system. While some states have safety nets for these youth that age out of care, for example, California’s Extended Foster Care Program, current legislation supports the idea that young people are better served in stable, family-like environments and so that is the goal for youth of all ages who are in care. Regrettably, there is a stigma that surrounds adolescents who are on child welfare which labels them as being “too difficult” due to various struggles such as mental health and substance abuse, in addition to the typical struggles of being a teenager. Due to this stereotype, many youths who become eligible for adoption or guardianship as adolescents do not end up in permanent homes making them more likely to drop out of high school, experience homeless, and be unemployed. Adolescents in child welfare are just as much deserving of forever homes as children who are in the child welfare system, despite having more, or different challenges, than younger child welfare youth, and for this reason, research is necessary to show what specific things need to be done to ensure permanency for adolescents. This researcher utilizes both an exploratory and descriptive design via a researcher-created questionnaire administered to resource parents in Sacramento County. The survey instrument included a mixture of open-ended questions, multiple-choice, and Likert scale questions, to assess resource parents’ concerns related to their becoming a resource parent for adolescents, being a permeant placement for adolescents, competencies as it relates to common struggles of adolescents, and suggested solutions to overcome barriers. The purpose of the current study is to explore the relationship between items that asked resource parents (the independent variables) and their willingness to be a resource parent/permanent connection for adolescents in care (the dependent variables). This study found that resource parents in Sacramento County, on average have a neutral level of comfortability regarding most of the identified categories. Additionally, when compared to parents’ comfort levels for youth ages 10 and younger, within the respective categories, it was found that parents were often more comfortable with the younger youth. However, possible solutions or helps to raise parent comfortability were identified through closed and opened ended questions, including more adolescent-specific resource parent training and resource parent support groups.