Understanding perceptions and lived experiences of Black adults who achieved better than expected outcomes after foster care

Black children are disproportionately represented in the United States Child Welfare System (CWS) and experience persistent racial inequities, placement instability, and cumulative trauma. Although prior research has extensively documented negative outcomes associated with foster care, less is known about how some Black adults achieve positive outcomes after aging out. This qualitative study examined the processes that foster resilience and thriving among Black adults formerly in foster care. Guided by Adrian Van Breda’s process-focused resiliency framework, this study conceptualized resilience as a dynamic interaction among adversity, mediating processes, and outcomes. Data were collected through semi-structured Critical Incident Technique interviews with ten Black adults, ages 18 to 36, who had exited foster care and reported positive life outcomes. A thorough coding process and thematic analysis, informed by a Person-in-Environment framework, were used to examine participants’ experiences within individual, relational, and systemic contexts. Participants described chronic and cumulative adversity, including abuse, neglect, loss and grief, racial discrimination, and placement instability. Despite these challenges, they demonstrated positive educational, occupational, relational, and psychosocial outcomes. Key mediating processes included internal processes like personal strengths and external processes like supportive relationships and resources, all of which helped describe their success. Yosso’s Community of Culture Wealth emerged as an additional lens to support additional factors that lead to the participants achieving better than expected outcomes. The implications arising from this study depict the importance of system change within the Child Welfare systems and begs future work to produce expanded viewpoints about the success of all marginalized groups.

Author

• Garner, Robert E.

Identifier

hdl:10057/56112

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:soar.wichita.edu:10057/56112