Aging Out of Foster Care and Legal Involvement: Toward a Typology of Risk

Abstract

This article uses data from a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health to explore variation in the risk of legal involvement among youths who have aged out of the child welfare system. Employing latent class analysis, it empirically derives subgroups of youths with common or shared characteristics of risk. The analyses identify four distinct subgroups: the low‐risk, moderate‐risk, high‐risk externalizing psychopathology, and high‐risk drug culture groups. Multinomial logistic regressions show that contextual and dispositional factors predict group membership. Attention to the factors that distinguish the groups may attenuate the risk for legal involvement for youths aging out of the child welfare system.