Increasing Life Skills While Decreasing Depression, Anxiety, and Stress in Transitional Aged Youth: A Person-Centered Mentorship Approach
Transitional Aged Youth (TAYs) are young adults between 18-24 who have recently aged out of the foster care system and are now a part of the Extended Foster Care system (EFC). Unfortunately, this population is not guaranteed familial or social support. They have to rely on basic knowledge and skills obtained while in the foster care system to help with navigate their world. Most TAYs end up homeless, unemployed, and incarcerated. There is also a high pregnancy rate among TAYs. Due to the limited assistance they receive upon entering EFC, they are at a higher risk of experiencing mental health challenges compared to other young adult populations. This research aimed to determine the effectiveness of a PersonCentered Mentorship Intervention that provided more knowledge of life skills and strategies to help TAYs increase their emotional regulation. The approach utilized in the study was to have TAYs participate in a Person-Centered Mentorship Group for six weeks, using a Single-case research design. Two participants took the Independent Living Life Skills Assessment (ILSS) and The Depression Anxiety Stress Survey (DASS-21) a total of nine times, three times before and six times throughout the study. The study answered the following research question, 1) does knowledge of transitional life skills affect emotional regulation in young adults who have aged out of the foster care system? and 2) What are the differences in the participants' self-report of transitional life skills and emotional regulation baseline to week six of the study? This study's findings indicated a statistically significant difference between the participants' self-reported transitional life skills and emotional regulation from the baseline to week 6 of the study.
: Extended Foster Care, Transitional Aged Youth, Depression, Anxiety, Stress, Adult and Continuing Education, Adult and Continuing Education and Teaching, Counselor Education
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