Background and Objectives: Youth leaving substitute care are prone to experience multiple difficulties during the transition to adulthood due to their past adverse experiences and the limited resources they can rely on as they face the tasks associated with independent living. While their social network and the support it provides receive growing recognition as a central factor that can promote a successful transition, these have seldom been thoroughly examined in this context. This study explores characteristics of the social support network of care leavers and examines their mediating effects in the link between past negative experiences and current functioning and well-being..
Methods: The sample consists of 345 Israeli care-leavers (52.2% females, mean age 20.78; SD = 1.78) who were formerly placed in child welfare foster (12.8%) or residential care (44.9%), or educational residential facilities (42.3%). At the time of the study they were in a range of living arrangements: independent, supported group in the community, and with parents. The young people responded to standardized self-report questionnaires administered by the researchers face-to-face or via phone. Measures included: structural network characteristics (e.g., size) and qualitative network characteristics (e.g., adequacy) examined vis-à-vis several types of social support (i.e., emotional, practical, and guidance; ; an adapted version of the SSNQ); childhood and adolescent negative life events (i.e., household dysfunction, abuse and adverse experiences while in care); measures of well-being (BSI-18; α = 0.91; loneliness, R-UCLA-LS, α = 0.94; life satisfaction, SLSS, α = 0.84), and functioning (adjustment to work or military service, SAAQ, α = 0.85; accommodation and economic hardship).
Findings: Structural equation modeling (SEM) provided support for the mediating role of social support in the relationship between early adversity and adult functioning and well–being. This was true across the three types of supports examined: emotional (χ ²(170) = 285.36***; CFI = .96; TLI = .94; RMSEA = .04; SRMR = .04), practical (χ ²(170) = 290.68***; CFI = .96; TLI = .94; RMSEA = .05; SRMR = .04), and information and guidance (χ ²(170) = 288.32***; CFI = .96; TLI = .94; RMSEA = .05; SRMR = .04).
Thus, network size, frequency of contact with its members, satisfaction with support, and network adequacy, were all negatively related to early adversity, and in turn contributed to multiple domains of functioning and well-being. The youth's perception of having enough people to rely on for support (network adequacy) was the most powerful predictor of outcomes. While patterns were similar across the types of support, the effects of practical and information and guidance support were most substantial.
Conclusions: 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.
The findings suggest that the detrimental long-term consequences of early adversity on adult outcomes are related not only to an impairment of structural aspects of support, such as the extent of its availability, but also to a decrease in youth’s own ability to recognize available support and mobilize it. For care leavers transitioning to adulthood, the role of practical and information and guidance supports, rather than that of emotional support, are critical in such processes.
Residential child care , Transition to adulthood from care
