Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2015

Document Type

Dissertation - NSU Access Only

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice

Advisor

Barbara Packer-Muti

Committee Member

John W. Billings

Committee Member

Ronald J. Chenail

Keywords

Resilience (Psychology), Emotional Adjustment, Foster Care, Socialization, Ethnic Groups

Abstract

This applied dissertation was designed to address the resilient processes of multiple placed foster youth to develop age-appropriate emotional competence. Adding texture to the study was the role played by race and culture. Inherent to the study were the voices of successful multiple-placed foster youth. The research attempted to respond to gaps in the literature regarding African American and Hispanic youth placed in foster placements that, if better understood, can positively impact the livelihoods of other multiple-placed foster youth. The minor participants, 10 to 17 years old, selected for this study were no longer wards of the state, having been reunited with their parents or guardians. At the time of the study, they had consistently exhibited age-appropriate emotional competence for at least 1 school year and had lived in a minimum of three foster placements. Other participants were young adults who were 18 years old living with a guardian or other caregiver while transitioning out of foster care.

A resiliency-scale instrument was given to 24 participants as a self-report tool that examines resilient attributes of multiple-placed foster youth in comparison to standardized aged norms. Male and female participants along three developmental age groups (i.e., 10 to 12 years old, 13 to 17 years old, and 18 years old) completed the resiliency-scale instrument. Although statistical significance was not captured in this limited-sized study, an analysis of the quantitative data revealed that, in comparison to same-aged peers, participants across age groups had average or above-average resiliency scale and resource-index t scores. However, in spite of these findings, in comparison to same-aged peers, the vulnerability-index t scores for all age groups suggested that the participants were more likely to experience and exhibit emotional difficulties.

The qualitative strand given to four minors and six young adults who self-identified as African American or Puerto Rican was an individualized semi structured interview consisting of 11 open-ended questions developed by the researcher and validated by a peer-review panel that identified themes of resilient processes of some multiple-placed foster youth. The open-ended questions were designed to facilitate conversations from the youths’ perspectives, explaining the experiences they believed had led to age-appropriate emotional competence. Specifically, participants were asked to reflect on placements in which the foster parent shared the youth’s ethnicity.

This mixed-methods study used a convergent, parallel design to compare results of the two forms of data. Given the small sample size, the youths’ experiences ranged from never having had any cultural experiences to almost always having had cultural experiences. The respondents also shared the manner in which they actualized sense of mastery, sense of relatedness, and emotional reactivity.

Download
To access this thesis/dissertation you must have a valid nova.edu OR mynsu.nova.edu email address and create an account for NSUWorks.

Free My Thesis

If you are the author of this work and would like to grant permission to make it openly accessible to all, please click the Free My Thesis button.

  Contact Author

Share

COinS
 
Dissertation of Distinction