Educational resilience among youth in foster care

Abstract

AbstractYouth in foster care can experience educational success. Yet, studies have tended to focus on their educational challenges and achievement gaps. Compared to their counterparts, youth in foster care lag behind on many academic outcomes. Research is needed to understand the academic and nonacademic indicators of educational resilience (i.e., the increased likelihood of school success despite adverse conditions) among youth in foster care. This prospective study expands the existing literature by examining key individual and contextual factors associated with educationally resilient outcomes among school‐aged youth in foster care, with a particular focus on two malleable protective factors—school engagement and quality youth–foster caregiver relationships. Academic proficiency benchmarks reported by state administrative data were used to operationalize three educationally resilient outcomes (i.e., math, reading, and attendance). Logistic regressions with robust standard errors were then estimated to determine which individual and contextual factors best predicted each educationally resilient outcome. Intersectionality was also explored. Results revealed that youth's lived experience of educational resilience varies by the intersection of their personal identities. In addition, two malleable protective factors (school engagement and quality youth–foster caregiver relationships) also predicted specific educationally resilient outcomes. Implications for research and practice in schools and child welfare agencies are discussed.