WHO STAYED? Lasting Connections After Foster Care

This study will examine how emerging adults who aged out of foster care (age 18-23) in the US understand and experience relational permanence, with particular attention to the perceived role of at least one caring, supportive adult in their lives. The study will also examine how caring adults who stayed understand their role, the relationship, and what it meant to remain a caring adult over time. The purpose of the study is to generate in-depth, participant-centered knowledge about the meaning, functions, and impacts of supportive adult relationships after foster care from both perspectives – young people who experienced these relationships and adults who sustained them. Results may inform service design, relational interventions, and policy efforts aimed at strengthening relational supports for youth transitioning from care.