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March 2012Vol. 13, No. 2Fifth Wave of Midwest Study Data Released

The Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth: Outcomes at Age 26 (Midwest Study) presents the fifth wave of data in the longitudinal study examining how 17- or 18-year-old foster youth fared as they transitioned to adulthood. Their outcomes are compared to those of young people without foster care experience (control group). The report presents survey data from 596 of the initial 732 young adults who made up the baseline sample of transitioning youth.

Data were collected between October 2010 and May 2011, when most study participants were 26 years old, and covered a number of areas: relationships with family of origin, social support, education, employment, economic well-being, receipt of government assistance, physical and mental well-being, sexual behaviors, pregnancy, marriage and cohabitation, parenting, and criminal justice system involvement.

While many individual study participants were thriving, outcomes for the group as a whole were poor. 

  • Approximately 80 percent of the Midwest Study group and 94 percent of the control group had earned at least a high school degree or GED. But only 19 percent of the Midwest Study group had earned a 4-year college degree, while 36 percent of the comparison group had done so.
  • Only 46 percent of the Midwest Study group were employed at the time of the survey; 80 percent of the comparison group were employed.
  • Average income of the Midwest Study group for the previous year was about $14,000; the average for the control group was about $32,000.
  • Among the Midwest Study group, 43 percent of the females and 74 percent of the males had been incarcerated at some time; in the comparison group, the percentages were 6 percent for females and 23 percent for males.

Outcomes continue to suggest that youth are aging out of foster care without the knowledge and skills they need to successfully transition to adulthood.

The Midwest Study is a collaborative effort involving Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago; the University of Wisconsin Survey Center; and the public child welfare agencies in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. This report, authored by Mark E. Courtney, Amy Dworsky, Adam Brown, Colleen Cary, Kara Love, and Vanessa Vorhies, is available on Chapin Hall's website:

http://www.chapinhall.org/sites/default/files/Midwest%20Evaluation_Report_12_21_11_2.pdf (1 MB)

Related item
Children's Bureau Express has published other stories about the Midwest Study and the well-being of children in foster care:

cbexpress.acf.hhs.gov

An official website of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families and the Children's Bureau

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