Abstract
Foster youth face a number of challenges as they transition from adolescence to young adulthood. Emancipation for foster youth occurs between the ages of 18 and 22, during which those successful in this transition are required to make well thought out decisions and act in their own best interest. However, few foster youth have learned the skills necessary to act as self-advocates. This in-depth phenomenological study explored the perceptions of three emancipated foster youth who were judged to be more effective self-advocates than their peers, concerning how prepared they felt to act as self-advocates. Research findings highlight the fact that many emancipated foster youth are rarely taught self-advocacy skills explicitly but rather learn the skills themselves through trial and error or happenstance and suggest ways that therapists can make the process. Research findings also suggest that acting as a self-advocate may enhance the educational choices and familial relationships of transitional foster youth.
Challenges to youth living in foster care are numerous and can include lack of familial support, frequent moves, difficulty learning, and inadequate educational opportunities. In addition, most children who are placed in foster care first lived with biological families in large urban communities, lack economic and social resources, and are of ethnic minority status (Courtney, Terao, & Bost, 2004). This at-risk population is also frequently exposed to verbal, physical and emotional abuse, neglect, and trauma which often necessitates removing the child from their home and being placed in the foster care system (Osterling & Hines, 2006).
Of specific concern for researchers has been the developmental transition that occurs for foster youth as they age out of the system and begin living independently as young adults. A significant challenge for transitioning adolescents is developing ones own voice and the ability to act in ones own best interest. During this time, acting as a self-advocate is vital for young people pursuing their goals in life, meeting their own needs, and interacting effectively with other people, thus contributing to the welfare of society (Osgood, Foster, Flanagan, & Ruth, 2005). This is especially true for youth who have been removed from their homes and placed into the foster care system. In most cases, these youth have no one advocating for them and their ability to act as a self-advocate becomes crucial.
The objective of this in-depth phenomenological study was to closely examine the perceptions of three emancipated foster youth and gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of acting as a self-advocate. Specifically, this study explored the experiences of three individuals in the INSPIRE program judged to be especially effective in self-advocacy. Self-advocacy is an inner belief in ones ability to serve her or his needs, while recognizing the important roles of family, government, educational institutions, and other social systems (Krebs & Pitcoff, 2006a, 2006b).
Foster youth need support from various social and familial systems (Osgood et al., 2005) but family disengagement and frequent moves can leave these needs unmet. The most dependable and effective support for foster youth then, may come in the form of self-advocacy. When foster youth turn 18, they often are left on their own with little to no financial, emotional, or educational support from their government parent to address their changing developmental needs (Youth Advocacy Center, 2001). Foster youth have constituted a growing at-risk population because their education and social needs are often not addressed appropriately while they are placed in and transitioning from the foster care system. The nation has taken responsibility for the social, emotional, and educational development of youth in foster care; such responsibility requires helping them develop skills of self-advocacy.
Method
In this study, a phenomenological approach was used in keeping with Green, Camilli, and Elmore (2006), to elicit the lived experiences and perceptions of emancipated foster youth who were judged to be effective at self-advocacy. A phenomenological approach was appropriate for this study as it attempted to describe and explain the world as those involved in the phenomenon perceived it (Green, Camilli, & Elmore, 2006).
Procedures
Participants were three 18-year-old female foster youth who had recently emancipated from the foster care system. Over a 4-month period, each participant was interviewed on three separate occasions to explore perceptions of their preparation to act as self-advocates.
Participant recruitment involved a collaboration with the INSPIRE program, a program that focuses on providing resources and support to emancipated foster youth.
This program was selected because of its focus on foster youth who have been emancipated from foster care allowing for a convenience sample leading to a particular type of participant in one central location (Merriam, 1998; Miles & Huberman, 1994; Yin, 1994). The INSPIRE program provides life skills training, seminars, and workshops for youth as well as housing and mental health support. While the participants had been recruited due to their association with the program, the INSPIRE program was not the focus of this research study.
Potential participants were identified through an INSPIRE skill-building group and those interested were provided a screening questionnaire. The screening processes held inclusion and exclusion screening criteria to allow the most appropriate case/cases to be selected. These criteria were age; length of time in care; the number of out of home placements; the number of schools attended and completion status; support from advocates; and initial self-advocacy assessment. For this study participants were 18 years or older, had been emancipated from care, and had spent a minimum of 1 year in care, with at least one school placement, and were identified by the researcher (informed by the literature) as successfully serving as self-advocates in their daily living.
Participants were asked to take part in three 1-hr data collection sessions. The first session served as an exploratory session to investigate and examine the participant with the hope of finding out about them. It also allowed the researcher to begin learning how each participant perceived their transition to adulthood and preparation to act as a self-advocate. The second session clarified participant perceptions and provided deeper insight into their development as self-advocates. This session also helped to verify information from the previous session checking for accuracy. The third and final session had been confirmatory to insure all information had been accurate according to the youth as they experienced it (Miles & Huberman, 1994).
Role of the Researcher
The role of the researcher can be multifaceted; however, the role that was most consistent with conducting phenomenological research was that of interviewer (McMillan & Schumacher, 2001). The interviewer was a 31-year-old African American male completing his doctorate. He has educational and counselor training with additional training in school administration. At the time of the study, he was working as a school administrator.
Data Sources and Evidence
Participants were given the following pseudonyms: Erika (2 years in foster care), Nancy (1 year in foster care), and Sara (3 years in foster care), and asked questions, directed at understanding their perception of their preparation to act as self-advocates. The following overarching questions guided individual interview processes and questions: (1) What are the descriptions of experiences, behaviors, actions, and activities related to the phenomenon of self-advocacy? (2) What opinions, intentions, goals, desires, and values are described related to the phenomenon of self-advocacy? (3)What feelings or emotions are expressed in the sharing of the participants’ experiences related to their preparation for self-advocacy? (4) How do participants understand the phenomenon of self-advocacy? (5) How do the participants describe their experiences in sensory terms (i.e., what they said, felt, heard, smelled, and touched) regarding the phenomenon of self-advocacy? (6) What background or demographic information is shared during the interview?
Data Analysis
Upon completion, recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim, analyzed using constant comparative method for themes or categories of meaning (category generation), and then used to write thick descriptions of their experiences. Initial coding was completed and the participants were asked about how accurately coding matched their intended descriptions to increase the credibility of the study and to ensure that the stories being constructed accurately reflected the participant’s experiences.
Results
Participant Case History
Case history served to provide a thick description of the participants involved in the study. Efforts were made not to sensationalize their stories while also using the stories they shared to illustrate their individual life experiences. The situations that preceded participants entering foster care were not described in detail and the reason for their being in care was only been alluded to, affirming that they had been in care for abuse or neglect. The focus then was on participants’ stories describing events and experiences of their time in foster care and during the emancipation process.
Erika
Erika is a Hispanic female aged 18. She had been in foster care for 2 years and emancipated from care shortly after her 18th birthday. She and her sister were removed from their home after it was determined that they were being abused by their parents. Erica commented about this experience saying, “It’s sad because I only remember how they had been with me. I don’t know how they are now.”
Around the time of her 18th birthday, she began the paperwork for emancipation. She reported that about a month after turning 18, the emancipation process was complete. She described the process as being brought to court, given $200, and asked to sign the necessary papers. Erika noted that she could not stay in her current foster home because “her [foster mother] daughter had been a mess and a bad influence for me and then the choices that my foster mom had been making at the time made me feel uncomfortable with the living situations, so I knew I wanted to leave.”
Erika also described the distance between her foster home and the community college as being and obstacle to staying at her current placement because of the required bus commute. She discussed being motivated to move to a city where she believed public transportation would be more accessible.
Once emancipated, Erika inquired from her social worker about what her “next steps” should be. The social worker indicated that if Erika were to initiate the process, she could be assigned to a social worker until the age of 21. In this way, Erika realized that her future success was based on her own motivation and resourcefulness stating, “It’s really up to us, what we want to do with our life. If you just want to start working or get pregnant, or married, or whatever…”
Nancy
Nancy is an 18-year-old Caucasian college student. She too had been removed from her home after an investigation confirmed abuse allegations. Nancy described how her new living environment taught her about earning trust and taking responsibility pointing out that her foster parents gave her “freedom” and “choices.” She states, “They gave me freedom and said if you want to do this, you know that there’s choices…I’m going to let you do this, but remember, you’re the adult.”
Nancy recalled the feelings of independence in response to the fact that her “foster parents really never did anything.” She described this experience with the following example: “If I had to go to a doctor’s appointment, they would (say) okay go, and come back with a note for missing class.” While she recognized that much of what she had accomplished was without the support of her foster parents, she also acknowledged that it helped her gain independence as opposed to relying on others.
Nancy described her transition from foster care to living on her own as “fun” because she did not have anyone telling her when to go to bed or dictating when she could see her boyfriend. She also acknowledged that some adulthood responsibilities “suck” in that she has to “pay for groceries and laundry,” and “that stuff’s hard.” However, she viewed her new freedom and independence as having her future in her own hands. She states, “since you are free, since you don’t have rules, it’s not like let’s party let’s do all that. Your life’s in your own hand, the futures in your own hand. If you wanna get good grades go study and do your homework.”
Sarah
Sarah is an 18-year-old African American who spent 3 years in foster care. Her story is one of many placements, social workers, schools. She shared her story with near exact dates in some cases. She described her time in foster care as being both good and bad. Sarah’s perception was shaped by the fact that she had been in “6–10 foster homes within 3 years.” She attempted to make sense of the ups and downs of being placed in multiple foster homes stating, “There are some times that okay this is cool…other times, like if I can’t get out of here I am going to lose it.”
Sarah viewed emancipation as “being responsible for you.” She commented that “most people think emancipation is you’re free now…” for her it is the acknowledgement that “you are responsible for you now.” Based on this perception, Sarah did not complete her emancipation paperwork or attend the court. Rather, she turned 18, packed her things, and moved in with a friend. Her foster mother called the social worker who asked Sara to come in and complete her paperwork and Sarah refused stating, “This is their problem, not mine…they put me in this situation so they can fix it.”
After her emancipation, Sarah’s transition to independent living lacked stability; including living with two sets of friends during that time. She reports leaving the house of her first friend due to conflict between her friend and her friend’s mother. Sarah stated, “my friend’s mom didn’t like her boyfriend…I told her I’m not going to stand in the middle of it her mom wasn’t really okay with that because I had just turned 18 and my friend had been still a minor and her boyfriend had been 18…her mom didn’t want either of us around her daughter anymore.” From there she moved in with another friend. Sarah did not state why she moved from the second friend’s home. She only stated, “I thought if I didn’t move out, it would mess up our friendship…well…it still messed up our friendship.” In this way, it appears that in some cases having basic needs met may jeopardize the need for social support. In this case, Sarah made the decision to find shelter elsewhere in an attempt to preserve the relationship.
The Nature and Role of Familial Relationships
Across participants, self-advocacy skills were utilized to improve familial relationships. Both Sara and Nancy stated that they take their parents out to lunch or a movie from time to time and “see the past as the past.” Erika stated that she still has conversations with her mom but has a hard time “respecting” her because of some of her mother’s choices related to her father. She did express hope that the relationship would heal over time.
While each participant still had communication with their biological families and was “working” on the relationship they also acknowledged being critical of them. This critical perspective was based on a developmental context, understanding that the relationship had evolved from a parent–child relationship to an adult–adult relationship. In parent–child form, roles were defined hierarchically. In this sense, the parent typically held the position of power and the child was the subordinate. As adults, the participants worked toward a different relational dynamic with their birth parents, where the adult–adult relationship possessed increased equality.
In this new adult–adult relational dyad, participants described a process where each individual focused on the future and dealt minimally with the past. The participants viewed these new relational dynamics positively, understanding that as emancipated youth, they no longer were required to return home, where they would again be placed in a position of subordination. These new relational roles allowed them a sense of space that they perceived as continuing their growth process. As an important part of self-advocacy, participants were taking responsibility for their mental and emotional well-being and recognizing when it was time to distance from their familial relationships and when it is time to reconnect.
In addition to similarities in the stories of emancipation and the management of familial relationships, common themes emerged as participants discussed their perceptions of preparation to act as self-advocates. Specifically, setting goals, researching, analyzing and synthesizing information, understanding the goals of “the other side,” identifying strengths and weaknesses and dealing with setbacks, and rejection emerged as dynamics of self-advocacy identified as contributing to the participants’ successes.
Setting goals
Goal setting is the foundation of self-advocacy. It is not simply long term but short-term goal planning that is of importance. In this study, participants used goal setting to keep them motivated and guide their decision making processes. Specifically, participants had set both short- and long-term goals to complete their schooling. For example, Nancy stated that she would like to work as a nurse, Sara as a social worker, and Erika was not completely certain, but knew she would need a college education to get there.
Erika’s educational goals were to complete her degree and get a booth as a hairstylist. Nancy had a similar set of goals hoping to complete her degree and become a prenatal nurse. Sara had a short-term education goal to transfer to a local state college and earn a degree in sociology. She would like to work as a relocation social worker or a life coach. Interestingly, all three participants reported wanting to have a family. Although participants had experienced the consequences of disadvantaged familial relationships, it had not deterred them from wanting to start their own families. In addition, as self-advocates, they understood that the choices they made would impact their futures. In this way, setting goals was only a preliminary step in seeing their goals actualized.
Researching, analyzing, and synthesizing information
The manner in which an individual plans to reach their goals is just as important as the goal itself. This relates to the strategies or techniques one may use to reach a goal or plan. Developing strategies to work through goals or periodically reassess them is vital for effective self-advocacy. This process of review allows one to create strategies in the event that life does not follow “the plan.”
Erika reported that she planned out decisions. She did not like to just “go with the flow.” As such she kept a day planner, created task lists for the week, regularly evaluated pros and cons, and talked to herself through “what if” statements. Her lists of strategies are very methodical in that she takes consideration not only for the plan but also the ways it may need to be adjusted. In a sense she covers all the angles. She describes this as being able to “assess, adapt, and overcome.”
Nancy uses a similar strategy planning things out with lists, evaluating pros and cons, and utilizing self-talk. She named this process, “lockdown.” She stated that she keeps herself on lockdown when she needs to get something done and during this time will reassesses her plans and the strategies she plans to utilize to improve her likelihood of success.
Finally, Sara is very much the same in that she too is as she states, “analytical.” She comments that she must plan from A to Z and humorously states, “ if aliens take over Starbucks I need to know where I want to have lunch.” Each of the participants takes time to plan thorough similar strategies and modify plans if needed. All of which are again important in transition to adulthood and acting as a self-advocate.
As self-advocates one must be able to research information and identify relevancy in the facts or data collected. It is a notion that situations must be looked at critically to reach ones expected end. For example, participants engaged in fact finding processes specifically to prepare for the emancipation process. Nancy put it best when she stated, “you don’t have them (the government) any more.”
Each of the participants recognized that once they “aged out of the system” they would no longer have their government parent providing for them. This motivated them to research facts and relevant information preparing them for the transition. As such, they researched jobs, rental agreements, college applications and financial aid, doctor and dentist visits, grocery shopping, and a variety of other aspects of independent daily living.
Understanding the goals of “the other side
The concept of “the other side” refers to the larger sociopolitical system within which one must participate throughout life. At times, goals of the larger system may be in conflict with individual desires. For example, Erika described the day she realized that her friend’s goals were no longer compatible with her own. She stated that this is when she stopped partying and getting into trouble. In this way, it becomes invaluable for foster youth to consider carefully their personal goals and their fit within the larger social and political systems within which they will operate.
Self-advocacy recognizes the complexities of ones system. Consequently, an individual’s system may consist of individuals, groups, subgroups, and activities that ultimately have the potential to shape a person’s world views. Understanding and analyzing the goals of the other side encourages self-advocates to critically analyze the social and political fit between their goals and the agenda of the larger system. For instance, when Sara was denied the opportunity to change her work schedule to align with her school and bus schedules, she began negotiating a transfer to a store closer to home so she could better manage the responsibilities of working and going to college.
Interestingly, Erika viewed the other side through the lens of her systemic history. She knows where she came from, what her struggles have been, and how the support of others has contributed to her success. In light of these experiences, she reports being considerate of others needs, while at the same time working to fulfill her own needs.
The “other side” then is comprised of each individual’s unique sociopolitical context and familial history.
Notably, a common dynamic for each participant was the ability to “empathize.” The importance here is not in whether the individual acts on the empathy but rather the ability to recognize another’s need while also acting in their own best interest. Participants were fulfilling the requirement/requirements of self-advocacy to understand the needs of others, present positive images of themselves, and deliver solutions with mutual benefits to all (Krebs & Pitcoff, 2006a; Youth Advocacy Center, 2001). In this way, self-advocacy requires focus on the self while also considering the perspectives and agendas of the larger system.
Identifying strengths and weaknesses
Effective self-advocacy requires that foster youth identify and acknowledge their own strengths and weaknesses. Foster youth in this study viewed personal strength ultimately as a self-responsibility. For example, the ability of participants to continue toward their goals and aspirations may have been a reflection of their own tenacity, resourcefulness, and perseverance. Sara explained this sense of self-responsibility as creating opportunities to “do and have all she wants” in life.
Participants were also able to be critical with themselves, recognizing areas where they needed improvement. Sara described herself as being “cruel, cold, and unrelenting” at times. Nancy stated that she “works too hard,” and Erika felt she “could work harder.” Interestingly, participants did not equate weakness with failure. Rather, they viewed their shortcomings as opportunities to make improvements. The foster youth in this study showed great resiliency and hope recognizing that they were not products of their environment and that they had the ability to transform their lives.
Dealing with setbacks and rejection
Often, life lessons related to setbacks in achieving personal, educational, and professional goals are developmental lessons learned during the process of maturation. Knowledge about how to manage experiences and feelings of rejection and about the skills needed to build on successes often accompanies this process. However, for foster youth, these coping strategies are seldom linked explicitly to their setbacks. Yet, understanding how to both cultivate success and manage rejection is essential for foster youth to act as self-advocates.
Many foster youth experience setbacks while trying to manage responsibilities of daily living while involved in their undergraduate studies. Erika described an appointment she missed with her therapist, which later caused her to miss a core course she needed for her major. Nancy described her acceptance to a private university and inability to attend for financial reasons. Sara described applying for a state university but not being accepted. However, each participant showed great resilience by moving forward with their objectives despite setbacks.
Through the disappointment of setbacks and experiences of rejection, participants found ways to build on their successes. Their willingness to not give in when faced with difficulty allowed them to evaluate their past success and apply strategies to their current situation that had worked for them in the past. Both Nancy and Erika believed that it was their relationship with God that had helped them to be successful in the past. Nancy stated, “Without God none of this would be possible.” In this way, spirituality appeared to play an important role in contributing to the success of participants. As self-advocates, participants were effective at identifying potential obstacles to their success and finding ways to compensate for those limitations.
Discussion
This study allowed for the examination of three emancipated foster youth participating in the INSPIRE program and judged to be especially effective in self-advocacy, in terms of how prepared they felt to act as self-advocates. Moreover, a unique contribution of this study are findings indicating that foster youth may not learn skills of self-advocacy in formal ways but rather learn these important life skills through happenstance and lived experience (Krumboltz, 2009).
Krumboltz (2009) acknowledges that, to a large extent, the circumstances shaping our lives are beyond our control. This is especially true for youth placed into foster care based on their parents’ behavior. Once removed from their home, many youth are in the foster care system for large amounts of time with minimal or no contact with family. Some are forced to change schools frequently as they are moved from foster home to foster home. Finding support can be difficult and becomes a self-navigated process that sometimes leads to appropriate mentor relationships but often times leads to relationships with people who do not support the best interest of the emancipated youth. This notion was a common thread across participants.
The participants in this study believed that had they been taught the necessary skills to act as self-advocates explicitly, they would have been more effective acting in their own best interest and felt more in control of shaping their future (Krebs & Pitcoff, 2006a). For example, participants identified that various social, familial, and institutional systems were valuable in helping them achieve educational goals; yet, this assistance did not appear to include specific strategies regarding how they could independently achieve their own educational goals. These findings lend themselves to important clinical implications for therapists working with transitional foster youth.
Setting Goals
This study indicated that participants learned self-advocacy through their experiences. For example, setting goals was something each participant was involved in without specifically being educated on how to do this or its importance. Each had a goal for their short- and long-term futures. These goals had been realized not through a process of direct instruction related to self-advocacy, but through various lived experiences and personal motivation. This supports the work of Krebs and Pitcoff (2006a, 2006b) highlighting that foster youth often learn skills of self-advocacy through contextual relationships.
In this way, therapists working with foster youth can facilitate discussions about goals and make explicit the important nature of setting goals and explain why doing so is an important step toward future success. In addition, therapists may explore the motivation around goals and when necessary work toward shifting extrinsic motivation to intrinsic motivation. Foster youth then become motivated to reach their goals for the internal rewards and in this way are more likely to advocate for themselves along the way.
Researching, Analyzing, and Synthesizing Information
A crucial part of being able to engage in self-advocacy is having adequate knowledge and information. Participants in this study perceived that they had the ability to act as a self-advocate. This supports research by Chung, Little, Steinberg, and Altschuler (2005) showing the ability of foster youth to advocate for their own needs. The foster youth in this study, acting as self-advocates, understood the importance of doing their own research to gather information. In like manner, analyzing and synthesizing information provided participants with an opportunity to make decisions that were a custom fit to their specific needs and goals.
This is not to say that foster youth do not need support to see “models of a succeeding world” (Krebs & Pitcoff, 2006a, p. 123). Rather, it reiterates the work of Osgood, Foster, Flanagan, and Ruth (2005) who points out that the transition to adulthood for “vulnerable populations” requires “considerable assistance” (p. 11). Yet, the data acknowledge that the participants in this study possessed the skills necessary to advocate for themselves. This may have been due to the ability of the participants to engage in associative learning which occurs when individuals observe the behavior of others within their environment and instrumental learning which occurs in response to observing the consequences of their own behavior (Krumboltz, 2009).
Acting as self-advocates allows them the opportunity to become participating citizens, which as Youth Advocacy Center (2001) points out is vital for foster youth. In practicing self-advocacy through the ability to research potential answers, resources, and options, participants were able to reduce their risk of problem behaviors, incarceration, depression, lower self-esteem, and poor social relationships (Children, Families, and Foster Care, 2008; Farruggia, Greenberger, Chen, Chuansheng, & Heckhausen, 2006) as they entered adulthood.
Therapists then can serve as both a source of information and a link to outside resources that they may not know about or have access to. In addition, the therapist should act as a sounding board for the analytic process allowing youth the opportunity to explore and try on different solutions before making a final decision.
Understanding the Goals of “The Other Side”
Understanding the goals of “the other side” is a systemic process that requires youth to carefully analyze the larger sociopolitical context against their personal goals and agenda. Negotiating a clear fit between the two is a form of self-advocacy, whereby foster youth are able to look outside themselves to acknowledge the needs of others while also acting in their own best interest.
Therapists must teach empathy and encourage foster youth to consider the social and political agendas of the larger system which may not have their best interest in mind. Therapists should assist foster youth in navigating through the complexities of dichotomous priorities and provide assertiveness training to support youth in their decision-making processes, secondary to their ability to act as self-advocates.
Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses
The ability of participants in this study to identify their own strengths and weaknesses was a critical element in their being able to act as self-advocates. Interestingly, it appeared that while they were aware of their weaknesses they did not use these critiques against themselves. Rather, it seems that the foster youth in this study were open first to acknowledging and then finding ways to compensate for their shortcomings. Specifically, they focused on their strengths as a strategy to maintain the motivation needed to reach their goals.
Therapists can create valuable opportunities for foster youth to evaluate honestly both their strengths and weaknesses identifying techniques to build on strengths and manage weaknesses. In this way, therapists can encourage a self-reflective process in which transitional youth learn about themselves, learn the skills to build on their strengths, and acknowledge and move beyond their weaknesses.
Dealing With Setbacks and Rejection
Learning to cope with and manage setbacks is an important developmental process.
The concept of psychosocial maturity is where one is fully aware of his or her relationship with their environment, be that physically, socially, or emotionally (Chung, Little, Steinberg, & Altschuler, 2005; Osgood et al., 2005). In this study, the foster youth demonstrated psychosocial maturity as they managed setbacks in their personal, educational, and professional lives promoting self-advocacy behaviors.
For example, all three participants encountered obstacles on their path toward college. Yet, each was clear regarding what they were hoping to accomplish, and did not allow their disappointment that things had not gone as planned, detour them from finding other ways to reach their goals. In this way, messages did not appear to be internalized about what it meant that they were not accepted or did not have the money to follow their original plan to fruition.
Therapists, then, can assess for the internalization of negative self-messages and directly challenge these message. Many foster youth will already carry with them an internal critical voice serving only to reinforce these new messages. In this way, therapists can begin to replace inaccurate or faulty views of self with more realistic ones that support their ability to accomplish their goals.
Reminding foster youth that there is no shame in taking a nontraditional path (graduate from high school and into a 4 year higher education environment), whether that is what is required to reach their goals, can ensure that they do not become overly discouraged or give up on their goals. Therapists can help ensure that goals are realistic and attainable. Still, it may be that some youth are motivated to reach their goals through a traditional path regardless and with the help of a therapist can identify the specific steps they will need to take (i.e., taking a test prep course, opening a checking account, or having someone proof read their application cover letter) to increase the likelihood of success the next time. In this way, foster youth supported in acting as self-advocates, keep their eye on the prize, and maintain motivation to accomplish what they set out to do.
Conclusion
This study explored the phenomenon of acting as self-advocate among three emancipated foster youth who were judged to be more effective at self-advocates than their peers. Currently, there are few forums through which transitioning foster youth are able to explicitly learn and practice acting as self-advocates. Still, it appears that learning to act as a self-advocate may be one of the most beneficial life-skills emancipating foster youth can posses.
Foster youth understanding how to act in their own emotional, financial, and educational best interest has powerful implications for a traditionally marginalized and at-risk population. The three youth participating in this study learned skills that translate to the adult world they emancipated into. Psychosocially, they learned the skills necessary to promote their own best interest. Unfortunately, they learned these indirectly through lived experiences yet acknowledged that learning them explicitly would have assisted them in the transition to independent living significantly.
In addition to similarities in the stories of emancipation and the management of familial relationships, a unique contribution of this study is the identification of common themes that emerged as participants discussed their perceptions of preparation to act as self-advocates. Specifically, setting goals, researching, analyzing and synthesizing information, understanding the goals of “the other side,” identifying strengths and weaknesses and dealing with setbacks, and rejection emerged as dynamics of self-advocacy identified as contributing to the participants’ successes.
Although the sample size was not large enough to generalize that all youth learn self-advocacy skills through life experiences, this study does emphasizes the perceptions of the participants who recognized that learning these skills explicitly would have been potentially life changing. As social justice advocates, therapists must promote skills of self-advocacy for transitioning foster youth in ways that allow them to act in their own best interest. Through psychoeducation, role play, encouragement, resources, and emotional support, therapists can begin adequately preparing foster youth for a successful emancipation and transition into independent adult living.
The next steps for practitioners and scholars are to focus on self-advocacy directly and explicitly through psychoeducational processes providing foster youth real opportunities to practice self-advocacy skills. While Krebs and Pitcoff (2006a) point out that many successful people learn these skills indirectly, we should not assume that this is always the case. The youth in this study reported learning self-advocacy on their own through lived experience. Future research should explore whether it would be more effective to provide direct instruction with regard to these skills, and illustrate the socially unjust nature of not providing such opportunities.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article