This study uses the Support Network Assessment for Practice (SNAP) approach to measure the support provided to young people transitioning from foster care.
Methods:
The SNAP was administered on two occasions, approximately 7 months apart, to a cohort of transition-age foster youth (n = 27). Analyses investigated measurement reliability and sensitivity to change for network-level characteristics as well as baseline factors associated with relationship stability.
Results:
Most network-level indicators had strong test–retest correlations, and differences in mean scores over time also were detected, suggesting measurement sensitivity to change. Respondents were able to explain most observed changes in their networks, further suggesting reliable measurement. Stable relationships were those reported as stronger and providing more multifaceted support and those with family members and/or parent figures.
Discussion:
The SNAP approach could be used to facilitate planning around support needs for youth transitioning out of foster care and to evaluate efforts to enhance support networks.
AhrensK. R.DuBoisD. L.GarrisonM.SpencerR.RichardsonL. P.LozanoP. (2011). Qualitative exploration of relationships with important non-parental adults in the lives of youth in foster care. Children and Youth Services Review, 33, 1012–1023.
2.
AntleB.JohnsonL.BarbeeA.SullivanD. (2009). Fostering interdependent versus independent living in youth aging out of care through healthy relationships. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, 90, 309–315.
3.
ArnettJ. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55, 469–480.
4.
AveryR. J. (2010). An examination of theory and promising practice for achieving permanency for teens before they age out of foster care. Children and Youth Services Review, 32, 399–408.
5.
BeggsJ. J.HurlbertJ. S.HainesV. A. (1996). Revisiting the rural–urban contrast: Personal networks in nonmetropolitan and metropolitan settings. Rural Sociology, 61, 407–426.
6.
BerzinS. C.SingerE.HokansonK. (2014). Emerging versus emancipating: The transition to adulthood for youth in foster care. Journal of Adolescent Research, 29, 616–638.
7.
BlakesleeJ. E. (2012). Expanding the scope of research with transition-age foster youth: Applications of the social network perspective. Child & Family Social Work, 17, 326–336.
8.
BlakesleeJ. E. (2015). Measuring the support networks of transition-age foster youth: Preliminary validation of a social network assessment for research and practice. Children and Youth Services Review, 52, 123–134.
9.
BrekkeJ. S. (2012). Shaping a science of social work. Research on Social Work Practice, 22, 455–464.
10.
BrewerD. D. (2000). Forgetting in the recall-based elicitation of personal and social networks. Social Networks, 22, 29–43.
11.
BrownA.CourtneyM. E.McMillenJ. C. (2015). Behavioral health needs and service use among those who’ve aged-out of foster care. Children and Youth Services Review, 58, 163–169.
12.
CampbellK. E.LeeB. A. (1991). Name generators in surveys of personal networks. Social Networks, 13, 203–221.
13.
CollinsM. E.SpencerR.WardR. (2010). Supporting youth in the transition from foster care: Formal and informal connections. Child Welfare, 89, 125–143.
14.
CushingG.GreenblattS. B. (2009). Vulnerability to foster care drift after the termination of parental rights. Research on Social Work Practice, 19, 694–704.
15.
CushingG.SamuelsG. M.KermanB. (2014). Profiles of relational permanence at 22: Variability in parental supports and outcomes among young adults with foster care histories. Children and Youth Services Review, 39, 73–83.
16.
DegenneA.LebeauxM. (2005). The dynamics of personal networks at the time of entry into adult life. Social Networks, 27, 337–358.
17.
FeldS. L.SuitorJ. J.HoeghJ. G. (2007). Describing changes in personal networks over time. Field Methods, 19, 281–236.
18.
GoodkindS.SchelbeL. A.ShookJ. J. (2011). Why youth leave care: Understandings of adulthood and transition successes and challenges among youth aging out of child welfare. Children and Youth Services Review, 33, 1039–1048.
19.
GranovetterM. (1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78, 1360–1380.
20.
GreesonJ. K.GarciaA. R.KimM.CourtneyM. E. (2014). Foster youth and social support: The first RCT of independent living services. Research on Social Work Practice, 25, 349–357.
21.
GreesonJ. K.ThompsonA. E.AliS.WengerR. S. (2015). It’s good to know that you got somebody that’s not going anywhere: Attitudes and beliefs of older youth in foster care about child welfare-based natural mentoring. Children and Youth Services Review, 48, 140–149.
22.
HilesD.MossD.WrightJ.DallosR. (2013). Young people’s experience of social support during the process of leaving care: A review of the literature. Children and Youth Services Review, 35, 2059–2071.
23.
IBM Corp. (2010). Released 2010. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows (Version 19.0). Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.
24.
KellerT. E.CusickG.CourtneyM. E. (2007). Approaching the transition to adulthood: Distinctive profiles of adolescents aging out of the child welfare system. Social Service Review, 81, 453–484.
25.
MarsdenP. V. (1987). Core discussion networks of Americans. American Sociological Review, 52, 122–131.
26.
MarsdenP. V. (1990). Network data and measurement. Annual Review of Sociology, 16, 435–463.
27.
MarsdenP. V. (2005). Recent developments in network measurement. In CarringtonP. J.ScottJ.WassermanS. (Eds.), Models and methods of social network analysis (pp. 8–30). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
28.
MarsdenP. V.CampbellK. E. (1984). Measuring tie strength. Social Forces, 63, 482–501.
29.
McDanielM.CourtneyM. E.PergamitM. RLowensteinC. (2014). Preparing for a “next generation” evaluation of independent living programs for youth in foster care: Project overview (OPRE Report #2014-71). Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
30.
MendesP.MoslehuddinB. (2006). From dependence to interdependence: Towards better outcomes for young people leaving state care. Child Abuse Review, 15, 110–126.
31.
MoodyJ.WhiteD. R. (2003). Structural cohesion and embeddedness: A hierarchical concept of social groups. American Sociological Review, 68, 103–127.
32.
MorganD.NealM.CarderP. (1996). The stability of core and peripheral networks. Social Networks, 9, 9–25.
33.
MunsonM. R.LeeB. R.MillerD.ColeA.NedelcuC. (2013). Emerging adulthood among former system youth: The ideal versus the real. Children and Youth Services Review, 35, 923–929.
34.
MunsonM. R.McMillenJ. C. (2009). Natural mentoring and psychosocial outcomes among older youth transitioning from foster care. Children and Youth Services Review, 31, 104–111.
35.
NegriffS.JamesA.TrickettP. K. (2015). Characteristics of the social support networks of maltreated youth: Exploring the effects of maltreatment experience and foster placement. Social Development, 24, 483–500.
36.
NesmithA.ChristophersenK. (2014). Smoothing the transition to adulthood: Creating ongoing supportive relationships among foster youth. Children and Youth Services Review, 37, 1–8.
37.
PerryB. (2006). Understanding social network disruption: The case of youth in foster care. Social Problems, 53, 371–391.
38.
PerryB. L.PescosolidoB. A. (2012). Social network dynamics and biographical disruption: The case of “first-timers” with mental illness. American Journal of Sociology, 118, 134–175.
39.
ProppJ.OrtegaD.NewHeartF. (2003). Independence or interdependence: Rethinking the transition from ward of the court to adulthood. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, 84, 259–266.
40.
SalazarA. M.KellerT. E.CourtneyM. E. (2011). Understanding social support’s role in the relationship between maltreatment and depression among youth with foster care experience. Child Maltreatment, 16, 102–113.
41.
SamuelsG. M. (2009). Ambiguous loss of home: The experience of familial (im)permanence among young adults with foster care backgrounds. Children and Youth Services Review, 31, 1229–1239.
42.
SamuelsG. M.PryceJ. M. (2008). “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”: Survivalist self-reliance as resilience and risk among young adults aging out of foster care. Children and Youth Services Review, 30, 1198–1210.
43.
ShpiegelS.OcasioK. (2015). Functioning patterns among older adolescents in foster care: Results from a cluster analysis. Children and Youth Services Review, 58, 227–235.
44.
SingerE. R.BerzinS. C.HokansonK. (2013). Voices of former foster youth: Supportive relationships in the transition to adulthood. Children and Youth Services Review, 35, 2110–2117.
45.
StottT. (2013). Transitioning youth: Policies and outcomes. Children and Youth Services Review, 35, 218–227.
46.
StraussA.CorbinJ. (1990). Basics of qualitative research (Vol. 15). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
47.
SuitorJ. J.WellmanB.MorganD. L. (1997). It’s about time: How, why, and when networks change. Social Networks, 19, 1–7.
48.
TracyE. M.CatalanoR. F.WhittakerJ. K.FineD. (1990). Reliability of social network data. Social Work Research and Abstracts, 26, 33–35.
49.
TracyE. M.KimH.BrownS.MinM. O.JunM. K.McCartyC. (2012). Substance abuse treatment stage and personal networks of women in substance abuse treatment. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 3, 65.
50.
TracyE. M.WhittakerJ. K. (1990). The social network map: Assessing social support in clinical practice. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Human Services, 71, 461–470.
51.
TracyE. M.WhittakerJ. K. (2015). Commentary: Social network analysis and the social work profession. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 6, 643–654.
52.
UnrauY. A.SeitaJ. R.PutneyK. S. (2008). Former foster youth remember multiple placement moves: A journey of loss and hope. Children & Youth Services Review, 30, 1256–1266.
53.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children, Youth, and Families. (2012). Information memorandum: Promoting social and emotional well-being for children and youth receiving child welfare services (Publication No. ACYF-CB-IM-12-04). Washington, DC: Author.
54.
WalkerM.WassermanS.WellmanB. (1993). Statistical models for social support networks. Sociological Methods & Research, 22, 71.
55.
WellmanB. (1979). The community question: The intimate networks of East Yorkers. American Journal of Sociology, 84, 1201–1231.
56.
WellmanB.FrankK. (2001). Network capital in a multi-level world. In LinN.BurtR. S.CookK. (Eds.), Social capital (pp. 233–273). Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.
57.
WellmanB.WongR. Y. L.TindallD.NazerN. (1997). A decade of network change: Turnover, persistence and stability in personal communities. Social Networks, 19, 27–50.
58.
WellmanB.WortleyS. (1989). Brothers’ keepers: Situating kinship relations in broader networks of social support. Sociological Perspectives, 32, 273–306.
59.
WrightE. R.PescosolidoB. A. (2002). “Sorry I forgot”: The role of recall error in longitudinal personal network studies. In LevyJ. A.PescosolidoB. A. (Eds.), Advances in medical sociology: Social networks and health (Vol. 8, pp. 113–129). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
60.
YatesT. M.GreyI. K. (2012). Adapting to aging out: Profiles of risk and resilience among emancipated foster youth. Development and Psychopathology, 24, 475–492.
