Transitioning to Adulthood from Alternative Care A Multinational Study of 962 Adults with Care Experience
THIS STUDY LOOKED AT:
Millions of children worldwide grow up in alternative care after being separated from their biological families.
As these young people enter adulthood, they face higher risks of...
POOR
UNSTABLE
HEALTH
LOWER
HOUSING & EMPLOYMENT
LIFE SATISFACTION
These risks are in part because they lack consistent family and social support.
KEY QUESTIONS
What supports are
most helpful
in the transition
&
What barriers are
most harmful or challenging?
to adulthood from care?
THIS STUDY INCLUDED:
942 ADULTS FROM
INDIA, KENYA
ZIMBABWE
UGANDA, MEXICO
TWENTY
RWANDA
who spent at leaset six months in alternative care
POLAND
COUNTRIES
ETHIOPIA, PERU
PORTUGAL ITALY, DRC
UNITED STATES
Reasons for separation included:
29.9%
parental death
22.2%
abaondonment
19.4%
poverty
19.1%
family instability
Participants reflected on what helped or hindered them as they became independent adults and what shaped their functioning later in life.
Based on research by Amanda Hiles Howard, Megan Roberts, Peter K. Muthui, Paisley Willams, Nicole Gilbertson Wilke