A smooth transition into adulthood? evidence from the foster care alumni programs

Abstract Background Foster care alumni programs are designed to allow a smooth transition to adulthood for one of the of the most disadvantaged groups in our societies. This is done via a combination of social work and direct economic help. However, the effectiveness of these aftercare programs remains uncertain as causal evidence on their effectiveness is scarce. This research aims to fill this gap by utilizing two consequential government reforms together with detailed microdata on health-, education and labor market outcomes on all Finish persons eligible to these programs. The study contributes to the literature on robust public policy evaluation in public health policy and politics. Methods The setting is based on the changes of eligibility age for the foster care alumni programs. This allows for the use of (local) randomization around the cutoff based on the birthdate. To exploit this randomization, I use regression discontinuity-design based methods to undercover of the causal effects of these programs. In addition, the study also uses area variation in the coverage of these programs as an additional robustness check. Results The preliminary results show that the program had no effects on wellbeing measured by the use on depression or anxiety medication. More results for other outcomes (i.e. labor and education) as well as healthcare outcomes are in progress. Key messages • Foster care alumni programs are important to bridge the transition period for foster care alumni to adulthood. • However, the current programs in Finland do not seem to fully achieve this goal.