Beyond School Engagement: School Adaptation and Its Role in Bolstering Resilience Among Youth Who Have Been Involved with Child Welfare Services

Abstract

School adaptation is a critical risk or resilience factor for at-risk youth. The overall aim was to improve our conceptualization of school adaptation as a risk or resilience factor for youth in contact with the child welfare system. We hypothesized that school adaptation includes a range of indicators that would distinguish youth into meaningful groups, that group membership is related to known risk factors, and that school adaptation groups predicts mental health functioning. Participants included 2668 youth in contact with the child welfare system following an investigation for alleged maltreatment. Youth, teachers, caregivers, and caseworkers provided relevant information. Patterns among school adaptation indicators were determined via latent profile analysis, relationships between latent profiles and child welfare risk factors were determined using multinomial logistic regression, and relationships between profiles and later mental health were explored using hierarchal linear regression. Latent profile analysis supported the interpretation of four profiles of school adaptation, including a high overall adaptation group, a moderate overall adaptation with somewhat poor behavior group, a low overall adaptation with poor behavior group, and a low overall adaptation with good behavior and low emotional/cognitive engagement group. School adaptation profiles were related to some demographic variables but were largely independent of child welfare indicators. Maltreatment severity predicted profile membership overall, but differences between groups were not significant. Maltreatment severity and profile membership predicted youth mental health functioning 3 years later. For youth involved with child welfare services, profiles of school adaptation appear to be better predictors of mental health outcomes than type, substantiation, or severity of maltreatment, demonstrating the important protective role of school in the lives of at-risk youth.