Social networks of care leavers: Examining alternative models (compensation, moderation, and mediation) of the contribution of social support to well-being and functioning in young adulthood and their relationships to childhood negative life events

Every year a few thousand youth terminate their stay in out-of-home placements and embark on their independent path as adults. These young people typically come from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds in conjunction with varying levels of exposure to experiences of maltreatment. At the age of 18, which marks the end of state responsibility over their safety and development, they are required, quite abruptly, to deal with both the separation from their growing environment and the multiple tasks entailed in independent living. All the while, having limited support resources to lean on. As a result, care leavers are known as one of the most socially excluded groups in society.

A strong social support network is receiving growing recognition as a central factor that may promote the resilience of these vulnerable young adults and their successful transition into adulthood. Nevertheless, this issue has seldom been thoroughly investigated and very little is known about the structure of care leavers' social network, the support it provides, or the manner in which it may affect their adjustment. 

Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to explore the unique characteristics of residential and foster care alumni's social network and the support it provides during the transition to adulthood, and to examine whether higher levels of support can compensate for deprivation resulting from multiple negative life events. In addition, the study examined social support's role as intervening in the relationship between youths' past negative experiences and functioning and well-being in young adulthood. Drawing on the social support and resilience literature, the study investigated alternative models of moderation and mediation to describe the range of associations between childhood and adolescent negative life events, available social support during the transition to adulthood, and current functioning and well-being of these young people.

At the independent variables level, the research examined early life events that included experiences of household dysfunction, experiences of abuse, "normative" negative events, and negative experiences while in care. At the intervening variables level, the study explored the network's composition (e.g., parents or friends) as well as five structural and qualitative dimensions of support: network size, frequency of contact with its members (structural dimensions), perceived adequacy of support, satisfaction with support and negative aspects of supportive relationships (qualitative dimensions). These dimensions were examined vis-à-vis three functions of support: emotional, practical, and information and guidance. At the dependent variables level six domains were examined encompassing the young adults' functional and emotional well-being. These included three central functional domains: adjustment to military service, work or post-secondary studies, financial situation, and housing difficulties; and three aspects of emotional well-being: psychological distress, loneliness, and life satisfaction.

Method

The study consists of 345 care leavers, predominantly from residential care (87.2%) aged 18 to 25. Approximately half of the respondents (47.5%) participated at the time of the study in one of two independent living programs catering for care leavers in Israel. The young people responded to self-report questionnaires administered by the researchers at one point in time, face-to-face or via phone (64.3% of the youth). Standardized measures were used to assess the extent of negative life events youth were exposed to during childhood and adolescence, characteristics of their social network and the support it provides, and their level of functioning and well-being in adulthood.

Data analysis included Pearson correlations, t-tests and Anova tests to examine relationships between the variables. Testing the theoretical model we used structural equation modeling (SEM).

Findings

The findings show that the care leavers in the current study were exposed to high levels of early negative life events putting them at risk for a wide range of functional and mental difficulties. For example, between a quarter to a half of the young people were exposed to one or more experiences of household dysfunction (e.g., severe financial hardship, incarceration or mental illness of a family member), and between a fifth to a third experienced sexual or physical abuse, accordingly. Furthermore, some of the youth were further exposed to experiences of maltreatment while in care by either peers or staff. Consequently, I found that as young adults, many of the youth experience considerable financial difficulties and that compared to same age peers they were less satisfied with their lives and suffer from levels twice as high of psychological symptoms. In addition, many showed signs of future housing insecurity, which is of special concern in light of the fact that about a fifth of them reported that since leaving care they had experienced periods when they had no place to live in.

Examining the characteristics of youths’ social support networks shows that many enjoy the support of several figures with whom they maintain regular contact. While these findings suggest that contrary to common beliefs, they are not altogether without support, evidence indicates that this support is limited in scope and in quality of resources provided. Thus for example, we found that many of the youth (about a third of the sample) have a small network limited to up to two persons providing support. These supporters were typically friends, with few adult figures. Particularly salient was the limited support provided by parents, whom only about one participant out of ten referred to as potential sources of support. Accordingly, most of the youth (53.6%) reported that they lack support in at least one of the three types of support examined, with information and guidance, and even more so, practical support, being the types most lacking. 

Structural equation modeling (SEM) consistently indicated that the characteristics of youths’ social networks and the support they provided in adulthood, mediated the described relationship between early negative life events and youths' current condition. Findings showed that high levels of household dysfunction, experiences of abuse, and adverse experiences while in care, were associated with an overall decrease in network size, frequency of contact with its members, satisfaction with received support and youth's perception that they have enough people to rely on for help. These negative associations were observed across types of emotional, practical, and information and guidance support, suggesting the central role early traumatic experiences have in determining the structure of youths’ available support network as well as shaping their subjective experience of support.

All these network attributes contributed significantly to the prediction of youths’ current condition. The findings reveal that the contribution of the structural dimensions of the network (size and frequency), despite its significance, was limited in range when compared to the qualitative dimensions of the network, in particular to that of perceived adequacy of support. In fact, network adequacy (youth's perception that he receives sufficient support from his network) was the only attribute that showed a major and consistent contribution to a wide range of outcomes across the different types of support. This finding highlights the great importance of youth's feeling that he has enough people to rely on for support. This feeling is contingent on the extent of support available, the strength of ties to network members (measured by frequency of contact), but also on additional structural aspects such as network composition (e.g., the salient lack of parents or supportive adult figures), as well as the quality of resources available through existing supportive ties. Evidence showing that youth do not make use of all support resources available to them, seem to indicate that additional factors related to the young person himself, his perceptions, attitudes and behaviors, have a central role in this process. In particular, it seems that early negative life events also impair youth's ability to recognize available support, appreciate it and make use of it.

A central finding of the present research lies in the fact that each of the support functions: emotional, practical, and information and guidance, was found to play an important, though distinct role in the relationship between early negative events in the lives of the young people and their outcomes in young adulthood. The findings highlight that in addition to practical support which was the most central in its contribution, information and guidance support, was second in importance. 

Finally, the direct association found between social support across its various dimensions and multiple domains of functioning and well-being, testifies to its compensating role. The moderating hypothesis was not supported, however. The meaning of these findings is that in the case youth were exposed to severe negative life events during childhood, their detrimental long-term effects cannot be offset or even minimized by social support in adulthood (buffering effect). Notwithstanding, especially high levels of support can compensate for disadvantage accumulated as a result of these experiences

Implications of the research

This study is the first to examine the role of social support network characteristics in the relationship between early traumatic experiences and adult outcomes, while distinguishing between various types of support, and distinguishing within each type between structural and qualitative attributes of the network. This is where its unique theoretical contribution lies. Through this examination we learn that the detrimental long-term effects of early adversity on adult outcomes are related not only to a reduction in the actual support resources available to the individual, but also to an impairment in his ability to exercise personal agency in his interpersonal relationships in the manner by which he perceives them, responds to them, and mobilizes them according to his needs. Whereas the support literature typically refers to the central role of emotional support in such processes, for care leavers transitioning to adulthood, practical and information and guidance, seem to be of greater importance.

The findings of the research further suggest the dual role social support may have in the process linking early risk to adverse outcomes in adulthood: the evidence regarding its compensating role highlight its potential to promote successful coping with the detrimental consequences of early negative life events. However, at the same time, by mediating the long term consequences of early traumas it also serves as another link in the risk chain that decreases one's chances of rising above the adversity to which he was born, unless targeted efforts will be focused on severing this chain by increasing social support and its availability specifically to those exposed to many severe negative events.

These understandings mark the period while youth are still care as a central focus of intervention that should promote the strengthening of existing support networks, such as with parents and other kin, creating alternative support resources, such as mentors from outside the care facility. At the same time, efforts should be directed to strengthening youths' social skills, for example through benevolent relationships with caregivers, so as to enable them to preserve such networks, turn to them for help, and develop new satisfying relationships in the future. It is important that such efforts be continued after youth leave care as well, with special emphasis on the provision of practical and information and guidance supports, which are more cost-effective, but also the most essential for these young people at this time in their lives.

The study was carried out among a convenience sample that alongside care leavers from educational residential settings included a large group of care leavers participating in independent living programs. Attempts to generalize these findings to other groups should therefore be made with caution. In light of this, further research examining other groups of care leavers, at-risk youth who haven't been in substitute care, and representative samples of youth in Israeli society, is recommended.