A Multi-Stakeholder Perspective on Factors Affecting Successful Transition to Adulthood for Youth with Severe Emotional Disturbances

Milira Cox; Jennifer Brown Urban; Kristen Hassmiller Lich; Rebecca Wells; C Nicole Lawrence; Nadira Kwaja

doi:10.1007/s10560-022-00898-6

A Multi-Stakeholder Perspective on Factors Affecting Successful Transition to Adulthood for Youth with Severe Emotional Disturbances

Child Adolesc Social Work J. 2022 Nov 15:1-19. doi: 10.1007/s10560-022-00898-6. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Milira Cox¹, Jennifer Brown Urban¹, Kristen Hassmiller Lich², Rebecca Wells³, C Nicole Lawrence⁴, Nadira Kwaja¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Research on Youth Thriving and Evaluation, Department of Family Science and Human Development, Montclair State University, 1 Normal Ave., UN 4144, Montclair, NJ 07043 USA.
² Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Management, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC USA.
³ Department of Management, Policy, and Community Health, University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston, TX USA.
⁴ Center for Child and Family Policy, Duke University, Durham, NC USA.

Abstract

This study elicited the perspectives of youth, caregivers, service providers and researchers to explore how communities can best support the transition to adulthood for youth ages 16-21 with mental health and functional impairments, who are at risk of disconnecting from health and human services. Framed by Relational Systems Evaluation (RSE) and Positive Youth Development (PYD), our study demonstrates the importance of engagement with youth experts. Group Concept Mapping (GCM), a collaborative multiphase mixed-methods approach, was used as a systematic process for participants to make meaning of qualitative data using multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis (Kane and Trochim in Concept mapping for planning and evaluation, Sage Publications Inc., Thousand Oaks, 2007). Across all participant groups, Life Skills were perceived as highly important and highly feasible for a successful transition to adulthood. However, Positive Social Support & Connectedness were viewed as less important and less feasible by all groups. When examined closely, youth perspectives differed from caregiver and provider perspectives in the factors they prioritized and deemed feasible. Our findings have implications for community mental health services and positive youth development program practitioners.

Keywords: Mental health; Positive youth development; Severe emotional disturbance; Transition to adulthood; Transition-age youth.

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