Between fall 2019 and spring 2020, Think Of Us partnered with Bloom Works (Bloom) as well as five locations across the United States to better understand the transition process for youth aging out of foster care. Our initial goal was to identify gaps in the system that Think Of Us could address in our next phase of product development. However,…
This research-based issue brief outlines clear strategies and framework elements that child welfare service systems should adopt to promote the development of resilience among young adults in foster care. Readers explore what it means to develop resilience, what research says about this issue and why it is such a vital asset for youth in care.
This brief summarizes current research and promising practices for implementing TIC to support the well-being of children exposed to trauma and help them reach their full potential. The brief begins with an overview of the nature, prevalence, and impact of childhood trauma, followed by a discussion of related risk factors associated with poor child outcomes and protective factors that support…
(2015) Promoting Protective Factors for Children and Youth in Foster Care: A Guide for Practitioners
Building the protective factors of children and youth in foster care can help increase their resilience in the short term. It can also help promote skills, Personal characteristics, knowledge, relationships, and opportunities that offset risk factors and contribute to improved well-being and positive longer term outcomes.
The findings highlight the need for multidimensional models of risk and resilience and illustrate the importance of heretofore underappreciated heterogeneity in the adaptive outcomes of emancipated foster youth.
Children exposed to social adversity—hardship as a result of social circumstances such as poverty or intergenerational trauma—are at increased risk of poor outcomes across the life course. Understanding what promotes resilient outcomes is essential for the development of evidence informed intervention strategies. We conducted a systematic review to identify how child resilience is measured and what factors are associated with…
In this systematic review, we will 1) assess the concepts, methods and designs of these intervention trials with a particular emphasis on resilience definitions and the instruments used to measure resilience, and will 2) propose standards for future intervention trials based on recent developments in the field.
The primary goal of this study was to explore whether individual resiliency factors measured by the Resilience Scale (RS) influence academic success for Bermudian foster care adolescents, a population previously unstudied in the literature. Results revealed a statistically significant positive relationship between resiliency and reading achievement but no relationship between resiliency and GPA and resiliency and math achievement.
The literature identifies contributing factors to resilience in emancipating foster care youth, while the findings of the research signify the effectiveness of modalities and philosophies that utilize a whole-person approach to working with this vulnerable population. Implications to social work practice, policy, and continuing research are discussed.
(2019) Fostering Resilience in Children: The Essential Role of Healthcare Professionals and Families
This research review finds that when children are resilient, they are confident, curious, able to adapt to new situations, and better skilled to extend their reach into the world. The goal for healthcare professionals, as well trained gatekeepers of children’s and adolescent’s health, should be to promote their balance and resilience with the collaboration of their families, which in turn…