Location: https://cardiff.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_f6jfx7UfTdi5DcVnJx79WQ
Presenters: Svetlana Shpiegel, Amy Dworsky, Elizabeth Aparicio (USA)
In the United States, young people with foster care backgrounds become parents earlier than their counterparts in the general population (Courtney et al., 2005; Shpiegel et al., 2018). On average, nearly 20% of young women and 10% of young men in foster care become parents by age 19 (Courtney et al., 2016; Shpiegel et al., 2017), and these figures rise to 40% and 20%, respectively, by age 21 (Courtney et al., 2018; Shpiegel & Cascardi, 2018). Research on this population has expanded considerably during the past two decades (Eastman et al., 2019), highlighting the successes and challenges of young parents as they transitioned out of foster care and into young adulthood. In the current presentation, we aim to: (a) review the state of research on early parenthood among youth in and aging-out of foster care, including prevalence rates, risk and protective factors, and key socioeconomic outcomes; (b) describe the services and supports commonly provided to these young people, and what is known about the effectiveness of various services; and (c) provide recommendations for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers working with this population in the United States and beyond.