Improving Transition Outcomes for Marginalized Youth

Abstract

This article describes research designed to identify the impact of marginalization on transition planning for two groups of youth with disabilities: Latinas and youth in foster care. Findings are presented through the ecological systems framework, which provides a useful means of examining differing single and multilevel influences on transition planning. Data from each area are provided to identify the unique barriers and sources of support that these youth experience. Results support the need to consider the culture of marginalization and disenfranchisement within a broad diversity lens when developing transition plans and providing services to youth with disabilities. The discussion includes a guide for transition service providers and reflects approaches that more appropriately address circumstances faced by marginalized youth with disabilities.

An ecological approach to understanding barriers to employment for youth with disabilities compared to their typically developing peers: views of youth, employers, and job counselors

“…In contrast, the interactions between microsystems of youth with disabilities often acted as a barrier to getting a job because of parental concerns and weaker peer influences in connecting them to work opportunities. Our findings are consistent with research on youth with disabilities encountering parental overprotection compared to typically developing youth [36][37][38][39]. Evidence shows that parents raising a child with a disability often struggle with encouraging them to be independent [13,40].…”

“…It is important to understand immediate microsettings (i.e. home, school, peer relations) in addition to youth's own perspective of their disability because it can have a profound impact on helping youth to find employment [36].…”

“…They should be educated about their rights and opportunities for work and how to advocate for themselves [36,44]. Along with this is a need for a greater co-ordination of services and interagency collaboration and disability awareness among employers to reduce barriers for youth with disabilities in gaining employment [36].…”

Foster care parents' perceptions of their foster care youth's self-efficacy beliefs

“…Available research has focused on the psychosocial (Fernandes, 2008), vocational (Goerge, Bilaver, & Lee, 2002), and educational (Hill, 2009) problems these young individuals face when they leave the system. Conversely, even with the high percentage of children with disabilities in foster care, few studies have taken into account the transition of these youth when they "ageout" of the system (Geenen & Powers, 2006a;Gil-Kashiwabara, Hogansen, Geenen, Powers, & Powers, 2007). In addition, there is also limited research on the perception of foster parents concerning the career development of their foster youth in order to help them have positive vocational outcomes (Bandura, Barbaranelli, Caprara, & Pastorelli, 2001).…”

“…The available research addressed the significant role of parents and their influence on their children's self-perceptions of being academically and vocationally competent (Eccles, 1994;Tuner & Lapan, 2002). However, the research available on foster parenting needs focus on the retention of foster parents in the system (Gibbs & Wildfire, 2007); it also gives little attention to the perception of foster caregivers of youths, particularly youths with disabilities (Smith, 2002), and how they might improve their foster care youths' vocational outcomes when transitioning out of the foster care system Gil-Kashiwabara et al, 2007). The following sections provide the research questions that guided the study, followed by the definition of the concepts and variables contained in the purpose statement.…”