| Violent delinquency represents a small, albeit, burgeoning area of research interest in the field of child welfare. Investigators have recently turned their attention to the impact of child welfare services on delinquent offending. Particularly relevant to this line of inquiry are investigations of the impact of placement experiences, involving youth who have been removed from their homes and placed into substitute care settings, on later offending patterns. Initial reports suggest that experiences such as number of placements, type of placement, and re-entry affect later offending.; Using survey data from the Midwest Study of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth (The Midwest Study), this study uses structural equation modeling to examine two models which hypothesize that adverse care experience is associated with violent delinquency directly and indirectly through poor social bonds encompassing parent/caregiver attachments, school commitment, and involvement in prosocial activities. In the first model, parent/caregiver attachments are characterized by closeness to birth parents and grandparents. In the second model, parent/caregiver attachments are characterized by closeness to foster parents.; Overall, analysis of the structural models revealed that a direct association between poor out-of-home care experience and violent delinquency is maintained when controlling for abuse, mental health diagnosis, and parent/caregiver problems. Moreover, social bonds composed primarily of school commitment, but also attachment to foster parents, and involvement in prosocial activities have a full mediating effect on the relationship between poor care experience and violent delinquency. Attachment defined by closeness to foster parents failed to yield any positive associations in the hypothesized model. Finally, each model functions differently across race and gender subgroups.; Study findings support the need for further research to test a causal model along with other factors of importance to the care experience/violent delinquency relationship. Findings also have implications for researchers', policy makers', and practitioners' understanding of the impact of child welfare services intervention and achieving successful outcomes among youth in out-of-home care. |
