Page 34 - IJPS-8-2

International Journal of
Population Studies URM Education, Economic, and Social Outcomes

positive adult roles and mentors are beneficial to both Congo when compared to youth from other countries,
youths in foster care (Avery, 2011), immigrant youth there was a significant relationship with level of education
(Rossiter & Rossiter, 2009), and most specifically immigrant χ (2,388) = 14.45, P < 0.01. Youths from the DRC are
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youth in foster care (Evans et al., 2022; Socha et al., 2022). equally likely to be enrolled in a college or have a GED/HS
For youth who exited care in FFY2015, the variable was yes diploma or be attending a certificate program at the time
or no, where the caseworker determined if the youth had a of discharge from foster care. There were no significant
connection to a positive adult role model. For youth who relationships found between educational outcomes and
discharged in FFY2016, the options were more inclusive, youth from Somalia or Eritrea.
using a Likert scale to rate both the quality and quantity of The analysis was also run with all countries of interest
these adult relationships. Therefore, the responses for youth in one model, as displayed in Table 2. This shows an
who existed care in FFY2016 were simplified to a yes/no overall statistically significant relationship between
response for analysis. To do so, any youth who scored a 1 country of origin and educational outcomes, χ (8, 388)
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“youth has no social connections” for either the quantity = 39.34, P < 0.001. Youths from Myanmar are most
or quality measure were coded as (2) no; and for youth likely to be enrolled in college at discharge. Youths from
with a score of 2 or more for both quality and quantity of
social connections they were coded as (1) yes. In addition, Somalia, Eritrea, and other countries are most likely to
the variable that describes the youth’s living situation on still be enrolled in a K-12 education. Congolese youths
discharge is being used to describe social connections. are fairly evenly distributed across all three educational
This was dichotomously coded as (1) living with others outcomes.
if the response was living with friends, relatives, former 3.2. Economic well-being outcomes
foster family, adoptive family, in college, or in a residential
program or (2) living alone if the response was living More than half, 60.99% (n = 233) of the youths in the
alone, or homeless. Youths who were living in a residential sample were employed and 62.23% (n = 117) were self-
treatment center or incarcerated were eliminated from this sufficient. There is a statistically significant relationship
analysis. between Burmese youth (those from Myanmar) and
employment X (1,379) = 4.37, P < 0.05, showing that they
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2.4. Analysis methods are more likely to be employed (Table 3). There were no
Descriptive statistics were utilized to summarize the statistically significant differences between expected and
characteristics of the sample. Then, the author used cross- actual counts found between employment and youth from
tabulations and Pearson’s Chi-square tests through Stata the DRC, Eritrea, or Somalia.
14SE to assess the significance of relationships between However, the analysis for employment was also run
variables. The relationship of each country: Myanmar, with all of the countries of interest in one model, and
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, and Somalia, this did show a statistically significant relationship of
as compared with all “other” countries was individually χ (4,379) = 10.09, P < 0.05 as displayed in Table 4. In
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assessed in comparison to the youth’s status at discharge for this analysis, youth from other countries and those from
the level of education, employment status, self-sufficiency, Somalia were about equally likely to be employed versus
social connections, and living status at discharge. not employed, whereas youths from Myanmar and DRC
were more likely to be employed and youths from Eritrea
3. Results were less likely to be employed.
3.1. Educational attainment outcomes A statistical model was run to examine each country

The educational outcomes for youth served by the URM of origin as compared with other countries. The only
program vary greatly. At discharge, 56.52% (n = 221) of significant finding at the time was that of Eritrean
all youths were still enrolled in a K-12 setting, 24.81% youth, however, the cell sizes are too small to be valid.
(n = 97) had completed high school, a GED, or were in a Therefore, the results show no significant differences
vocational technology or associate’s degree program, and between expected and actual counts found between self-
only 18.67% (n = 73) were enrolled in a bachelor’s degree sufficiency and youth from Myanmar, DRC, and Somalia.
program. For the level of education, there is a statistically However, when all countries of origin were compared in
significant relationship with youth from Myanmar one analysis (Table 5), there was a statistically significant
X (2, 388) = 24.09, P < 0.001 when compared to youth from relationship between country of origin and self-sufficiency,
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other countries. As shown in Table 1, of the youth from X (4,188) = 13.76, P < 0.01. Burmese, Congolese, and
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Myanmar, they are most likely to be enrolled in college. Somali youths were more likely to be self-sufficient
Similarly, for youth from the Democratic Republic of the as compared to not self-sufficient. Youths from other

Volume 8 Issue 2 (2022) 28 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.v8i2.304