This study explores how foster care experiences can impact support network functionality as young people exit the foster care system. This can be conceptualized as a function of both network member capacity to provide adequate support to address young adult needs, and network stability, which reflects cohesion within and across relationships to facilitate consistent support over time. We conducted support network mapping and semi-structured interviews with youth in foster care aged 16-20 (N=22) and used theoretical thematic analysis to explore support barriers and facilitators in relation to the organizing concepts of support capacity and network stability. Overall, support capacity was limited by interpersonal difficulties inhibiting the presence and supportiveness of some network members (including family members, informal peer and community-based connections, and caseworkers), whereas network stability facilitated multidimensional support through strong and interconnected relationships with caregivers and service providers. Emergent network patterns reflected distinct subgroups of more and less functional support networks, and strategies for network enhancement focus on promoting youth-directed services and support, developing youth skills and opportunities to invest in informal relationships, and using network assessment to identify unmet support needs. Findings advance a framework for understanding how foster care impacts support network characteristics, and inform ongoing efforts to address resulting limitations through services and programming.

Research, practice, and policy focus on the importance of relationships with young people aging out of foster care, especially relational permanency. While previous research has examined these relationships, typically with mentors, foster parents, or biological parents, few have examined the quality of strong network ties within support networks. This study incorporated a network approach to understanding how youth discussed strong ties and defined closeness in relationships. Qualities of strong ties included stability, multidimensional support, advocacy, honesty and genuineness, commonalities, trust, and small interconnected core networks. Understanding qualities youth value in close relationships may help service providers in supporting and enhancing relational permanency from multiple sources of support for youth aging out of the foster care system.

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While factors related to undesirable consequences of sexual activity for Latinas are well documented, Latinas’ experiences with sexual satisfaction and pleasure in the broader context of sexual health remain understudied. The objective of this study is to increase understanding around adult Latinas’ experiences with sexual satisfaction, pleasure, and desire. Participants were recruited via a combination of convenience and snowball sampling approaches and engaged in individual interviews which utilized a semi-structured approach. Twenty self-identified Latina women, ages 19–37, participated. Participants represented diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds within the Latina diaspora. Three themes (each with subthemes) emerged from this analysis: (1) Latina women value sex and sexuality, (2) specific factors make their sexual experiences more or less pleasurable, and (3) experiences of being Latina shape sexual relationships and encounters. These findings have implications for social work education, practice, and policy. Critical and strengths-based approaches encourage questioning and critiquing power dynamics in the sexual lives of Latina women and have potential to inform work with other groups.

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