 USF Research Aims to Improve Foster Care
Researchers at the University of San Francisco hope to improve the experience of children in foster care by studying the impact of how youth are treated during their first days in shelters, long-term psychotherapy, and a college scholarship program.
Psychology Professor June Madsen Clausen, along with several USF undergraduate research assistants, directs the USF Foster Care Research Group, which is studying various aspects of foster care in San Francisco and Santa Clara counties. Among the group’s current projects is an evaluation of the impact of long-term psychotherapy provided to children in foster care by A Home Within, a San Francisco nonprofit serving foster children. The group also is studying the impact of the Silicon Valley Children’s Fund’s Youth Education Scholarship Program, which awards college scholarships to foster children when they turn 18.
“Most foster kids, when they turn 18, are given a brown plastic garbage bag with their belongings, and a modest amount of cash, typically $100 or $200,” Madsen Clausen said. “Then they are left to fend for themselves. Even those that are qualified for college can’t afford to go.” Madsen Clausen and her research assistants are evaluating the impact that a college scholarship, which covers tuition, room, and board, has on the lives of these youths.
Researchers also are working at the Santa Clara County Children’s Shelter to understand the experience of children during their first few days of foster care. Research assistants observe children around the clock, from the moment they enter the children’s shelter until the moment they leave for placement in a foster home, or seven days later, whichever comes first. A pilot study was done with seven children, aged 9 months to 16 years, last summer to determine the best way to conduct the full study, which Madsen Clausen hopes to begin sometime this year.
“Researchers have not empirically examined the experience of children at a children's shelter,” she said. “Methodologically it is hard because the children are in crisis and it is difficult to get permission to have access to them during this time.”
The goal of the Foster Care Research Group, which is funded by the USF Jesuit Foundation, the USF Faculty Development Fund, the Silicon Valley Children’s Fund, and A Home Within, is to “better understand the experience of children who are removed from their homes and to improve that experience,” she said. “These children are traumatized to begin with, often from physical abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect, then are traumatized again by being removed from their homes.”
The research being undertaken by the USF group is unique in the field. Most research focuses on the impact of child abuse and neglect on children, but not on the foster care they receive. The red tape involved in getting approval and access for research involving foster children can be daunting, Madsen Clausen said.
When Madsen Clausen thinks about what motivates her, she is reminded of two children she saw in a local children’s shelter on Christmas Eve. “I was walking out of my office there to spend Christmas with my two children, at home with food and family and presents and I saw these two children, about the same ages as my own, who had just arrived at the shelter, with tears streaming down their faces. They were just removed from their home on Christmas Eve. This is why I do this work. To help innocent kids who deserve to have the Christmases my kids have.”
|
