Youth exiting foster care often experience difficulties transitioning into adulthood. This paper focuses on Latino foster care youth in a major southwestern U.S. city and addresses the importance of peer networks as a crucial form of social capital as youth leave foster care. Case studies illustrate experiences of foster care alumni ranging in age from 18 to 26. Findings suggest that lack of housing forces youth into residential mobility or “couch surfing” and episodes of homelessness. Familial connections continue to be important to Latino youth. When Latino youth are unsuccessful in re‐establishing family relationships, survival is dependent upon peer social capital as youth move between extended family and friends, eventually relying upon peers for support. Recommendations are included.
This two ‐year autoethnographic action research study explores the processes a multiethnic/multiracial family uses to maintain their children's heritage language of Spanish and the family's multiculturalism. Data sources (including interviews and participant observations in the home and the dual‐language school) specifically focus on the eldest child, Nelia, from her kindergarten and first‐grade years where she attended a public dual‐language program. The findings illuminate the integral link between the family's ideology toward valuing bilingualism and the necessity of school support.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.