For example, the level of discordance between self-reports of Native American youth and the racial designations made by child welfare was 90% at Time 1; youth–child welfare discordance was even higher (96.1%) for multiracial youth.

Posted in Excerpts/Quotes on 2016-01-05 01:33Z by Steven

When surveying youth in foster care, almost one in five changed their racial self-identification over a one-year period. This reflects a higher rate of change over a shorter period of time than has been reported in the literature for adolescents in the general public. In contrast, the increased likelihood for Native American and multi-racial youth in the current study to change their racial categorization mirrors findings from earlier studies involving similarly-aged youth; the findings also suggest that a significant proportion of Hispanic youth change their ethnic categorization as well. Findings from the current study further highlight high rates of discordance between the racial and ethnic self-identification of Native American, Hispanic and multi-racial youth, and how agencies (school and child welfare) categorize them. For example, the level of discordance between self-reports of Native American youth and the racial designations made by child welfare was 90% at Time 1; youth–child welfare discordance was even higher (96.1%) for multiracial youth. Similarly, Hispanic youth were misclassified by the child welfare system over half of the time, and by school approximately one-third of the time.

Jessica Schmidt, et. al., “Who am I? Who do you think I am? Stability of racial/ethnic self-identification among youth in foster care and concordance with agency categorization,” Children and Youth Services Review, Volume 56, September, 2015, 65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.06.011. Also here.

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Who am I? Who do you think I am? Stability of racial/ethnic self-identification among youth in foster care and concordance with agency categorization

Posted in Articles, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, Social Work, United States on 2015-07-12 01:29Z by Steven

Who am I? Who do you think I am? Stability of racial/ethnic self-identification among youth in foster care and concordance with agency categorization

Children and Youth Services Review
Volume 56, September 2015
pages 61–67
DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.06.011

Jessica Schmidt
Regional Research Institute for Human Services
Portland State University, Portland, Oregon

Shanti Dubey
Regional Research Institute for Human Services
Portland State University, Portland, Oregon

Larry Dalton
Oregon Department of Human Services, Children, Adults and Families, Portland, Oregon

May Nelson
Portland Public Schools, Portland, Oregon

Junghee Lee
Regional Research Institute for Human Services
Portland State University, Portland, Oregon

Molly Oberweiser Kennedy
Regional Research Institute for Human Services
Portland State University, Portland, Oregon

Connie Kim-Gervey
Regional Research Institute for Human Services
Portland State University, Portland, Oregon

Laurie Powers
Regional Research Institute for Human Services
Portland State University, Portland, Oregon

Sarah Geenen
Regional Research Institute for Human Services
Portland State University, Portland, Oregon

Highlights

  • Examined stability of racial/ethnic self-identification among adolescents in foster care
  • Compared youth self-report with agency categorizations of race/ethnicity
  • Found especially high rates of agency-youth discordance for certain groups of youth
  • Child welfare system more likely to classify youth as White compared to school and youth themselves

While it has been well documented that racial and ethnic disparities exist for children of color in child welfare, the accuracy of the race and ethnicity information collected by agencies has not been examined, nor has the concordance of this information with youth self-report. This article addresses a major gap in the literature by examining 1) the racial and ethnic self-identification of youth in foster care, and the rate of agreement with child welfare and school categorizations; 2) the level of concordance between different agencies (school and child welfare); and 3) the stability of racial and ethnic self-identification among youth in foster care over time. Results reveal that almost 1 in 5 youth change their racial identification over a one-year period, high rates of discordance exist between the youth self-report of Native American, Hispanic and multiracial youth and how agencies categorize them, and a greater tendency for the child welfare system to classify a youth as White, as compared to school and youth themselves. Information from the study could be used to guide agencies towards a more youth-centered and flexible approach in regard to identifying, reporting and affirming youth’s evolving racial and ethnic identity.

Read the entire article here.

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