Hispanic Adults With Childhood Experiences Of Out-of-home-care: An Analysis Of Outcomes Across Race Groups

Abstract

This secondary data study focuses on the outcome differences of Hispanic, African American, and Caucasian adults with out-of-home care experiences as children. Centering on Hispanics as the reference group, the investigation tested the outcome success of 810 adults in areas of physical and mental health, education, and finance domains. The overall success of the outcomes for each race/ethnic group was also assessed using an integrated outcome composite success construct. In order to determine the strength of race/ethnicity in outcome success, 38 predictors and 12 outcome criteria variables were entered into a series of multivariate analyses that included both logistic and general linear model regressions. The selected model of significant predictors of outcome success included parental, personal, and program or services characteristics according to an ecological frame of reference. Race/ethnicity was identified as one of the statistically significant predictors of outcome success, primarily in finance measures. Hispanic and African American adults had predicted lower mean scores in the outcome success composite relative to Caucasian adults. No significant differences were identified with Hispanic and African American participants. The study used the data from the Casey Family Program National Alumni Study (Pecora et al., 2003), a national research performed by the Casey Family Programs Foundation on their long-term out-of-home care program model.