Emerging adulthood among care leavers in Israel: Personal and environmental factors contributing to functioning and well-being of young adults four years after aging out of residential facilities

Young people who age out of residential institutions (care leavers) deal with many challenges in the years after leaving care. In this period, they have to take care of themselves in all life domains. Studies around the world report that these young people experience difficulties in various life domains including high rates of instability in accommodation, unemployment, severe economic distress, and a low level of education. Although some studies conducted in Israel in the last years examined this population, most of them focused on care-leavers' situation shortly after leaving care. The current study complements these studies and focuses on a later period in the care-leavers' life.

The first aim of the study was to examine care leavers' situation, focusing on their functioning and well-being, about four year after leaving residential care facilities. For most of the young people in Israel, this is a period of transition from military service to civilian life. The second aim was to identify personal resources (optimism, self-esteem, self-efficacy and future orientation) and environmental resources (parents and peer support and use of social services) that predict the care leavers' situation in various life domains. In addition, functioning during the period after leaving care was explored as a mediator of the association between personal and environmental resources and the current situation. Furthermore, I tested a comprehensive model of personal and environmental resources as predictors of the young people's current situation and changes in their well-being over the years.

The study is based on the theoretical framework of "Emerging Adulthood" and resilience theory. "Emerging Adulthood" concepts were helpful in explaining the developmental period these young people experience, and the processes of transition to adulthood. Resilience theory guided the choice of the factors that may predict care leavers' functioning and well-being.
 

Method          

The current research is part of a longitudinal study that includes three points in time. In the first point in time, 276 young people completed a questionnaire in their last year in the care institutions. About a year later, while most of the young people were at the beginning of the military service, 234 of them were interviewed by phone. In the current point in time, about four years after leaving care, shortly after most of the young people completed their military service, 220 young people were interviewed again by phone (response rate of 79.7% from the original sample). This stage included a quantitative part and a qualitative part. In the qualitative part, 16 narrative interviews were conducted with young people who had already participated in the quantitative interviews.

The instruments included questionnaires to examine support from the young people's parents and friends in all three points in time. In the first point in time, questionnaires examining personal resources while still in care included: optimism, self-esteem, self-efficacy of independent living and future orientation. In the second point in time, the instruments used measured adaption to work/school/military service and well- being (including life satisfaction and mental distress). In the current point in time, various instruments and questionnaires evaluated the young people's situation regarding employment, income and economic situation, accommodation, education, use of alcohol and drugs and well-being. For data analysis, I used Pearson correlations, t-tests, and Anova to examine bi-variate associations between research variables. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to examine the predictors of functioning and well-being variables. In addition, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis was conducted in order to examine the theoretical model. The analysis of the narrative interviews was conducted using quadruple model for analyzing narrative interviews and focused on the holistic analysis of the content and the form of the interviews.

Results

First, I examined the current situation of the care leavers in various life domains. The qualitative analysis identified two distinct groups among the young people. The main narrative of the Struggling to Survive group includes mainly descriptions of many difficulties in their lives (including economic and emotional difficulties) and constant efforts to achieve adaptive functioning. Many of the young people's difficulties arose in the period of transition from military service to civilian life. These young people were identified as youth at risk (for example: at risk for being homeless or being involved in criminal activities). In the Surviving through Struggle group the narrative includes highlights of their positive situation today in various life domains (for example: employment and education) and positive feelings regarding their current emotional situation. These achievements do not come easily, but they see results to their constant effort to overcome obstacles they face.

In the quantitative analysis, I examined the associations between the personal and the environmental resources and the participants' functioning and well-being. Young people who had high personal resources (optimism, self-esteem, self-efficacy for tasks of independent living and future orientation) had lower economic distress and higher job security and vice versa. However, only positive future orientation correlates with more activities for acquiring higher education. In addition, personal resources were not correlated with alcohol and drug abuse. Personal resources were correlated positively with life satisfaction and negatively with emotional distress

Support from mother and friends, mainly in the current point in time, correlated with low economic distress. However, job security correlated with friends support and not with parental support. Support from parents and friends correlated positively with life satisfaction and negatively with emotional distress.

The predictive model indicated that background was significantly associated the current situation. Young women experience more economic and emotional distress than young men, but also do more activities than men for acquiring higher education. In addition, the alumni of therapeutic residential institutions do fewer activities for acquiring higher education compared to alumni of educational facilities. Young people who spent fewer years in care institutions have experienced more emotional distress.

Higher personal resources were associated with low economic distress. Future orientation predicted higher activities toward higher education and self-efficacy predicted higher life satisfaction. Friends’ support in the current point in time predicted low economic distress while friends’ support after leaving care predicted higher job security. Support from mother and friends were not associated with education. Support from mother and friends in the current point in time predicted higher life satisfaction, and mother support predicted low emotional distress.

Discussion

The importance of the research is its addition to the first longitudinal study of care leavers conducted in Israel and the perspective it provides about multiple domains of functioning and well-being. The study contributes to the theoretical and empirical knowledge about "emerging adulthood" by examining the unique route of transition to adulthood among care leavers in Israel. The results indicated that care leavers in Israel experience the different features of the emerging adulthood period including instability and exploring possibilities in the world of work. The current research adds to the international literature a unique aspect of the Israeli society, studying the contribution of military service to care leavers, and the significance of the period after discharge from the military service. In addition, the research contributes to the knowledge regarding resilience by having examined factors that were found in the international literature to be predictors of resilience among the unique population of care leavers in Israel and highlighted the need of combining personal and environmental resources to make the young people resilient when facing the challenges of transition to independent life.

The findings highlight the importance of preparing the young people to the transition from care and the need to accompany them after they leave care. The research highlights the transition from military service to civilian life as a challenging period for care leavers that requires systemic solutions to ensure better integration in civilian life. The study provided an opportunity to identify the different contributions of social support resources for these young people and their significance in providing appropriate responses to the young people's personal deficits. Social programs, both while in care institutions and after leaving care should be tailored to the specific personal needs of these young people (e.g., young immigrants from different countries). In addition, the results highlight the importance and the contribution of the relationship with parents. Hence, the need for working with parents to improve the relationships as much as possible. The research also points out that many young people do not receive effective support from welfare services, either due to lack of knowledge about their rights and possibilities, or because of the negative experiences with these services leading to lack of trust and hope that the services will help them. There is a clear need to reassess the network of services for these care leavers in order to find ways to make these services accessible and helpful.

Study limitations include, among others, the fact that response rate was only about 80%, perhaps missing a group of care leavers with unique characteristics. Another limitation is the sample size, which limited statistical power and more sophisticated analyses (e.g., latent class analysis). In addition, the ability to compare the research population with the general population and other youth at risk population is limited. Based on this study, I recommend continuing follow up of these young people in order to identify the impact and meaning of further transition periods, such as transition to higher education and to parenthood.