Date of Award

6-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Social Work

Department

School of Social Work

First Reader/Committee Chair

McAllister, Carolyn

Abstract

There has been extensive, mostly negative research on the outcomes of foster care youth. Due to the abundance of this research, Extended Foster Care (EFC) was created to help to provide additional resources and support to young adults in foster care until age 21. This is a fairly new program, therefore little research has been completed. One of the negative outcomes of foster youth is the high pregnancy and parenting rates. The purpose of this study is to be able to understand the knowledge and use of family planning services among the young adults participating in EFC. Understanding this information will help to improve services provided by the social workers who work with this population. This research used a quantitative questionnaire. The questionnaire was mailed to the young adults participating in EFC in San Bernardino County. A statistical analysis was completed using SPSS version 21. The study’s findings showed that on average, EFC participants have a good understanding of safe-sex practices but do not usually use safe-sex methods or go to family planning service organizations. The study also found that participant demographics do not have a correlation to their knowledge or use of family planning services, nor to the number of pregnancies or live births. However, there is a negative correlation between a participant's knowledge score and if they have children in their custody. Finally, 47% of participants reported being informed about family planning service organizations by their Social Worker.

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