Youth Leaving Institutional Care in China: Stress, Coping Mechanisms, Problematic Behaviors, and Social Support
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Youth Leaving Institutional Care in China: Stress, Coping Mechanisms, Problematic Behaviors, and Social Support Meirong Liu1 · Fei Sun2 · Saijun Zhang3 · Shaozhen Tan4 · Steve Anderson5 · Jing Guo6
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The study aims to provide an initial depiction of youth aging out of institutional care in China. Services for children cared in state child welfare institutes have been improving in the past decades in China. Lately, there is increasing consensus about the need for further understanding and alleviating challenges faced by youth who are aging out of the institutional care and transitioning to adulthood. Programs aimed at providing transitional services and support for these youth have emerged. However, research on the wellbeing of youth aging out of institutional care in China has been virtually non-existent. The study used survey data from 65 youth in one state child welfare institute to examine the characteristics and wellbeing of aging out foster youth, including their socio-demographic characteristics, independent living skills, sources of stress, coping mechanisms, behavioral problems, and social support. The youth faced financial difficulties and challenges in career planning and employment activities. They reported future self-expectations and economic hardships as major stress sources, and often referred to withdrawal as an anti-stress coping strategy. They were also identified with prevalent problematic behaviors and viewed social welfare agencies and friends as major sources of social support. This study shed light on the profile of youth aging out of institutional care in China. The results indicated that the youth reported unmet needs that require policy and practice attention. The findings are useful in informing social policies and interventions on developing support services for the youth transition to adulthood and independent living. Keywords Aging out youth · Independent living · Stress · Coping mechanisms · Problematic behaviors · Social support
* Meirong Liu [email protected] Shaozhen Tan [email protected] 1
School of Social Work, Howard University, 601 Howard Place NW, Washington, DC 20059, USA
2
School of Social Work, Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA
3
Department of Social Work, University of Mississippi School of Applied Sciences, Garland 315 University, Oxford, MS 338677‑1848, USA
4
Guangzhou Social Welfare Institute, No. 233 Longhu Road, Guangzhou 510520, China
5
School of Social Work, University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, 1010 W. Nevada Street | M/C 082, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
6
Manoa Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, USA
Although child welfare and protection problems have been brought great attention in the recent years in China, China is still taking early steps to develop a child protection system that can remove children who are subject to abuse or neglect within their family (Shang & Katz, 2014; Xu, Bright, & Ahn, 2
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