Fostering Connections: It does a brain good |
Governor Tom Corbett’s 2012-13 budget plan includes a proposal to help older foster youth achieve family permanency and provide increased supports to youth who remain in foster care. The Fostering Connections provision of the governor’s budget is a common-sense, cost-effective idea that Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children strongly supports.
Aside from its more obvious benefits to foster youth and taxpayers, it turns out Fostering Connections could assist teens in the child welfare system in another way. A recent report by the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative shows that connections achieved by stable relationships promote healthy brain development.
The report, The Adolescent Brain: New Research and its Implications for Young People Transitioning from Foster Care, finds the teenage years are a critical “use it or lose it” period for brain development - a unique time to develop cognitive skills that help teenagers cope with transitions and shape their judgment to take appropriate risks.
Youth who have experienced trauma - especially at a young age - often experience slowed brain development that can impact their sense of self-worth, ability to trust others and resilience/coping skills. Resilience is an especially important area of focus because so many youth in foster care have experienced past trauma.
Research shows the brain “rewires” itself during adolescence, providing an opportunity to promote positive development that can minimize past trauma. Studies have found that a caring, supportive relationship with at least one person can promote brain changes that boost resilience.
Lifelong support of a permanent family also is linked to increased high school graduation rates, college enrollment, self-esteem and physical and mental health - areas where foster youth typically fare worse than their peers.
This latest research suggests the supports provided by Fostering Connections could have much more profound benefits for foster youth than previously known.
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