UC Merced Undergraduate Research Journal

Foster youth are generally associated, within research conventions, as negative outcomes. Foster youth are children, teens, and young adults who are placed in varying institutions due to lack of parental neglect, mental, or physical abuse. The most prevalent cause of their displacement into government provided institutions, is neglect. Foster youth have encountered differing forms of adversities that affect their daily life. The abuse these children and youth encounter is often times traumatic. Some of the trauma can be a combination of: mental abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and much more. As such, their lives are altered and therefore affect their long-term functioning domains. They often have difficulty in demonstrating emotional connections or expression of them. The research that will be discussed is are the factors that influence a positive outcome on the prevalence of resiliency among foster youth. Some of the factors discussed will be external and internal factors that are included but not limited to: behavioral, social, and cognitive developments as well as, social relationships and external institutional support. Therefore, the addressed research question will be a literature review on: What factors lead to resiliency?