Foster Care: Is It Preparing Kids for Adult Homelessness? - Essay Sample

Introduction

Homelessness is one of the major challenges associated with the people who grow out of foster care. Most of the adults who grow up in the foster care centers end up homeless during their transition to adulthood and this has attracted the attention of many researchers across the world. Most of them want to have independent lives and this makes shelter one of the main priorities they look for when they get out of the foster care. One of the main concerns is whether the foster care prepares the youths to live in society and to survive the economic and social challenges they are likely to face. Independent living skills are necessary for the youths to survive and to meet their daily obligations. Foster care services do not offer adequate training and guidance to the youths on how to survive ones they are out of the program and this contributes to the high rate of homelessness.

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Background Information

There are many youths who get out of foster care programs each year. According to Fowler, Marcal, Zhang, Day, and Landsverk (2017), there are more than 20,000 youths who age out of foster care each year. The child welfare system provides financial, educational and feeding support to youths aged below 18 years and 21 years in some states. These youths are associated with drug abuse, high rate of unemployment, dependence, mental health challenges, and social challenges. Developmental theory suggests that the services and skills in the foster care programs contribute to the poor performance of the youths in the outside world. When compared to the ones who remain at home until they attain an adult age, the homelessness is evidently related to the program (2017). Those who do not join these programs get emotional and financial support from their parents and they can get housing when they are of age.

The research proposal will analyze several issues about homelessness and some of them can be verified from many other sources. The first analysis is whether gender is a major determinant of whether a person becomes homeless or not. The general view is that men face more difficulties in life than women because of the natural beliefs that men are stronger than ladies and this leads to most of the men lacking care. Ladies are believed to be the weaker sex and society takes more care for them than they do for men. The view also implies the possibility that most of the homeless men are victims of fate and societal bias. The other implication is that most of the homeless people are those who were exposed to violence before and sexual abuse. The implication is that the immoral occurrences in society have an impact on the level of responsibility and how well people get assimilated into society. For those who suffer from these vices, they are likely to feel like outcasts and they end up in the streets. The proposal will use gender as one of the considerations that make adults homeless.

The proposal will seek to determine if there is a need for foster care programs to provide more than the support they give. According to Zajac, Sheidow and Davis (2015), an analysis of the foster programs indicates that the transition process from the foster care programs was not useful in protecting the youths from drug abuse and crime among other vices in the society. Further research indicates that youths with a history of foster care are at a higher chance of using illegal drugs and becoming homeless as compared to those who have not been through the foster care programs (Pumarino, Puri & Richardson, 2017). The foster care programs should equip the youths with ways to make money, access jobs and survive in the conditions outside them. The proposal will focus on analyzing the conditions that can increase or reduce the ability to attain a shelter for young adults who age out of the programs.

Problem Statement

The high rate of homelessness among youths who go through the foster program is alarming and there is a need to determine the factors attributed to it. Most of these adults require support to understand the way they can be economically stable. The child welfare is responsible to ensure there are adequate shelter services for the adults who age out of foster care. They should also equip the adults with the necessary skills to survive after the foster care program.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this proposal is to find out the reasons why the adults who grow out of foster care are at a high risk of becoming homeless. It also aims at identifying the possible solutions that the government and the related agencies can use to achieve the required control. The outcomes of the proposal are to be used by these agencies to come up with long-lasting solutions. The solutions included in the proposal will be used to give insights into future research and will be used by the relevant authorities to come up with the necessary solutions to these challenges.

Objectives

The main objective of this proposal is to determine the relationship between foster care programs and the high rate of homelessness among youths who grow out of it. The specific objectives are as follows:

• To determine the relationship between foster care and homelessness among young adults.
• To identify the failures of the foster care that lead the homelessness.
• To determine the differences between the young adults that go through foster care and those who do not.

Research Question

• What is the relationship between foster care and the rate of homelessness among young adults?
• What are the failures of the foster care that lead the homelessness?
• What are the differences between the young adults that go through foster care and those who do not?

Research Design and Methods

The research will be qualitative and a sample will be chosen using sample calculation methods whereby purposive sampling is used to determine the inclusion criteria. The sample will include managers of the foster care centers, adults from foster care and other stakeholders. A quasi-experiment will be conducted and the dependent variable will be homelessness among the adults who grow out of the foster care. Independent variables include poverty, high cost of living, drug abuse, low education levels, and race. The control group will be adults who have not been to the foster care and the experimental group will compromise those who have grown out of the foster care. The independent samples t-test will be used to compare the means of the two groups. Validity and reliability will be addressed by setting up specific goals and measures to determine when the goals are not met. Interviews and questionnaires will include questions on when, how and why people become homeless with relation to foster care. They will also focus on the relationship between foster care and homelessness. Because of the information above about the trend of homelessness, it is important to carry out a qualitative study on the population to determine the reason why this trend is as it is.

Sampling

The sample to be included will be chosen using purposive sampling, whereby the sample is chosen based on their suitability in the research. The method is non-probability and the sample will be chosen as per the objectives of the study. It is also known as judgmental, selective or subjective sampling and it helps the researcher to choose a sample that will give the required outcomes. A sample of 30 people will be included. The sample will include managers of the foster care centers, adults from foster care and other stakeholders.

Quasi-Experiment and Variables

A quasi-experiment will be conducted. The dependent variable will be homelessness among adults who grow out of foster care. Independent variables include poverty, high cost of living, drug abuse, low education levels, and race. The control group will be adults who have not been to the foster care and the experimental group will compromise those who have grown out of the foster care. The independent samples t-test will be used to compare the means of the two groups. Validity and reliability will be addressed by setting up specific goals and measures to determine when the goals are not met. Interviews and questionnaires will include questions on when, how and why people become homeless with relation to foster care. They will also focus on the relationship between foster care and homelessness.

Interview

The interviews will be conducted using written and oral methods. The oral interviews will be conducted using phones and person-to-person methods. The interviews will take a total of thirty minutes each and will be carried out at the colleges and at the homes of the young adults. They will allow the participants to use either their names or to remain anonymous. The reason for this provision is to avoid the ethical dilemmas whereby the participants may not be comfortable sharing information about their past and current status. Some of the individual interview questions that will be used include the following:

• How old are you and where do you come from?
• Since when did you leave the foster care program?
• What are the challenges you experienced after leaving the program?
• Have you been homeless since you left it?
• What factors lead to homelessness for the people who grow out of foster care?

Observation

The observation will be done in the street, where the homeless adults are found. It will involve the analysis of the life they have and how they deal with the challenges facing them. For example, the observation will start with an analysis of the number of young adults who are homeless in the streets and how they became homeless. The analysis will be used to make conclusions on how the homelessness affects the people and whether they are all from the area. The theme of the observation will be to determine the rate and causes of the homelessness. The information collected will be presented using anecdotes in the form of paragraphs. Documents related to the issues taught in the program will be analyzed to provide more insights into the program.

Data Analysis

The data collected will be analyzed using content analysis method. It involves analyzing documents and passages to deduce the meaning and to make it easy to understand. It can also be used to convert the qualitative data into quantitative data, which is easier to understand. It will also help to identify the themes, trends, and patterns (Bengtsson, 2016). For example, it will help identify the patterns of becoming homeless among adults and how the trend has been over time. Results, interpretations, and meanings will be made and the relationship between concepts will be identified.

Ethical Considerations

The ethical considerations are a key part of the qualitative studies, mostly in medicine, sociology, and psychology. The researcher assumes that the research will follow the ethical norms but it is not always guaranteed. Dilemmas affect the quality and efficiency of the research (LaRossa & Bennett, 2018). The first ethical dilemma expected in this study is informed consent. The participants are expected to voluntarily and willingly give their views. The other one is beneficence-do no harm, a principle that is usually applied in health-related research and it means that the first rule is not to cause harm (Doherty & Chopra, 2017). The other one is respect for confidentiality and anonymity. The issues of homelessness are related to the confidential life and it may attract the need to maintain confidentiality and anonymity.

Conclusion

Homelessness after foster care is a common challenge among young adults and this is related to the foster care programs. The analysis of data shows that the people who grow out of the program are the ones at a higher risk of becoming homeless as compared to those who do not go throu...