Reference no: EM133288590

Question: Please paraphrase the three paragraphs

The current study examines youth participation in permanency planning family team conferences held in two foster care agencies in a large urban area. It explores the strategies conference facilitators employ to engage youth in decision-making. There is limited scholarly research focused on the nature and complexity of youth participation in child welfare decision-making, especially from the youth perspective. The current study fills a gap in the literature by exploring - from the perspective of foster youth and conference facilitators - strategies to engage older youth in decision making focused on permanency and transitional plans. By using procedural justice as the theoretical framework, the study expands this literature to an under examined population. The Institutional Review Boards of Columbia University, the New York City Administration for Children's Services, the New York State Office of Children and Family Services, and the New York Foundling approved the current study. Designated staff member at each site assisted in recruitment of the sample. Each month, the designated staff member emailed the researcher a list of permanency planning conferences involving youth, ages 18-21, scheduled to take place during the month. The list included the date, time and location of the conference, as well as the assigned facilitator. 

The sample consisted of 18 foster care youth and 10 conference facilitators. Of the eighteen youth, eight were females and ten were males. They ranged in age from 18 to 21 years old, with a mean age of 19 years old. Eight self-identified as Black, seven as Hispanic, one as White, and two as other. All youth in the sample, except one, had a permanency goal of Another Planned Permanent Living Arrangement (APPLA). The length of time spent in foster care ranged from 1.5 years to 20 years, with a mean of 7 years. The total number of placements while in foster care ranged from one to ten, with a mean of 5 placements. 

All observations took place in a private room at one of the two foster care agencies. The conferences generally lasted between 1 and 2 h. 

An interview instrument consisting of semi-structured and open-ended questions was used. The interview instrument included questions pertaining to the youth's understanding of the conference, preparation for the conference, opportunity to speak, whether they felt heard and understood, and their view of the decisions made. During initial coding, the data was read line-by-line and assigned provisional codes. The codes remained very close to the data and were assigned as actions based on the participants' words (Charmaz, 2006). During focused coding, the initial codes were reviewed to determine which were being used most frequently and/or were most salient.