TY - JOUR
T1 - After Child Maltreatment
T2 - The Importance of Voice for Youth in Foster Care
AU - the NYTD/CYTD Research Group
AU - Goldfarb, Deborah
AU - Tashjian, Sarah M.
AU - Goodman, Gail S.
AU - Bederian-Gardner, Daniel
AU - Hobbs, Sue D.
AU - Cordón, Ingrid M.
AU - Ogle, Christin M.
AU - Bakanosky, Sarah
AU - Narr, Rachel K.
AU - Chae, Yoojin
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
PY - 2021/7
Y1 - 2021/7
N2 - Once social services steps in to protect children from violence and neglect in their homes, many youth become wards of the specialized juvenile or family court that assists in child protection (e.g., the dependency court). Some of these children will be ordered into foster care. Within this “dependency system,” such children often feel a lack of voice. This study tests the prediction that foster youth who perceive having more opportunity for voice, even indirectly via a representative, more favorably rate the dependency system. Adolescents (n = 110), aged 17 years, involved in foster care and age-matched nonfoster youth rated “how good or bad the foster care/dependency court is for foster youth.” The foster youth were also asked about their interactions with the court and with their attorney representatives. Foster and nonfoster youth did not significantly differ in dependency system ratings when considered at the overall group level. However, foster and nonfoster youth ratings significantly differed when foster youth’s views of relevant prior legal experiences (e.g., frequency of child–attorney contact, quality of attorney representation) were taken into account: Youth with the highest perceived quality of experiences indicated more positive views than any other group. The importance of perceived quality of experience adds insight into mechanisms for improving adolescents’ feelings of voice in the legal system.
AB - Once social services steps in to protect children from violence and neglect in their homes, many youth become wards of the specialized juvenile or family court that assists in child protection (e.g., the dependency court). Some of these children will be ordered into foster care. Within this “dependency system,” such children often feel a lack of voice. This study tests the prediction that foster youth who perceive having more opportunity for voice, even indirectly via a representative, more favorably rate the dependency system. Adolescents (n = 110), aged 17 years, involved in foster care and age-matched nonfoster youth rated “how good or bad the foster care/dependency court is for foster youth.” The foster youth were also asked about their interactions with the court and with their attorney representatives. Foster and nonfoster youth did not significantly differ in dependency system ratings when considered at the overall group level. However, foster and nonfoster youth ratings significantly differed when foster youth’s views of relevant prior legal experiences (e.g., frequency of child–attorney contact, quality of attorney representation) were taken into account: Youth with the highest perceived quality of experiences indicated more positive views than any other group. The importance of perceived quality of experience adds insight into mechanisms for improving adolescents’ feelings of voice in the legal system.
KW - NYTD
KW - dependency
KW - foster youth
KW - legal representation
KW - voice
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85061584959&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0886260519825884
DO - 10.1177/0886260519825884
M3 - Article
C2 - 30735095
AN - SCOPUS:85061584959
SN - 0886-2605
VL - 36
SP - NP7388-NP7414
JO - Journal of Interpersonal Violence
JF - Journal of Interpersonal Violence
IS - 13-14
ER -