Abstract
Foster youth are at risk for negative mental health and psychosocial outcomes, including when they are on the brink of emancipation from care into self-sustained adulthood. Factors believed to affect outcomes among foster youth include residential and school instability. Although frequent moves to new homes and schools are common for youth living in poverty, instability for foster youth involves not only changing homes and schools but often also changes in caregivers, thus putting foster youth at risk for disrupted attachment relationships. For the current study, structural equation models examined links between instability, mental health problems, and attachment insecurities in foster and at-risk nonfoster youth. A model containing instability provided a better fit to the data than a model containing foster care status only. Group comparisons revealed that instability was associated with posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms for foster but not nonfoster youth. Implications of instability in the lives of foster youth are discussed.
•Foster youth often experience instability in both their home and school lives.•Instability was indexed by the total number of homes lived in and schools attended.•Links between instability, mental health outcomes, and attachment were examined.•Instability predicted posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms for foster youth.•SEM models suggest a need to decrease instability for at-risk and foster youth.