DOI: 10.3886/e209221v1
title: Improving Vocational Rehabilitation Outcomes for Justice- and/or Foster- Involved Youth with Disabilities

description: Cornell University conducted research on how state governments can improve job services to help youth and young adults who are involved in the justice system and/or foster care system achieve employment. This research looks to include youth, family, and professional perspectives on how state vocational rehabilitation agencies can more successfully outreach to youth who have been involved in foster care or juvenile justice. Vocational rehabilitation agencies are government agencies and community service providers who help people with disabilities overcome barriers to working and earning an income. The goal of this research is to provide guidance to professionals in these agencies and others so they can better reach youth who are involved in foster care or juvenile justice. This data set was part of a mixed methods research study, where Phase 1 was qualitative focus group interviews with two participant groups: (1) service provider professionals working within youth-serving agencies that serve justice and/or foster involved youth with disabilities; and (2) individuals who have experienced one or both of those systems and their families. During Phase 2 of the study, core themes identified through qualitative data analysis in Phase 1 were converted into survey items for a follow up survey with the same participant populations (including some who took part in the focus groups and some new participants). The target sample size was n = 400, evenly split between the different participant groups. Tab 1 of the uploaded file is the service provider professional responses, Tab 2 is the individuals with lived experience responses. Of note here is that this data set was used to confirm themes from Phase 1 qualitative research, as such, there were no attempts at making generalizable inferences and the data is not appropriate for such purposes. Rather, the follow-up survey was intended to increase the transferability of qualitative findings and increase confidence in making practitioner-oriented recommendations in a final toolkit deliverable for the project. This research was funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Community Living, National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), Grant #90IFRE0048. This publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the NIDILRR or the Department of Health and Human Services, nor does mention of tradenames, commercial products or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
description: N/A
description: Response Rates: The sample required for the Improving VR Outcomes for Justice and/or Foster Involved Youth with Disabilities online surveys is based on the statistical method that will be used to analyze the responses. GPower 3.1.9.2 (Faul, Erdfelder, & Lang, 2007) was utilized to conduct the power analysis to identify the sample required to detect moderately sized group differences. To have 80.08% power to detect small differences (f2 = 0.04) at alpha equal to .05 with multiple regression, a minimum of 384 people are required for the sample. The literature recommended over-recruiting by 10-25% to ensure adequate sizes (Rabiee, 2004; Krueger & Casey, 2000). We invited all 200 focus group and interview participants to respond to the survey and then recruit an equal number of participants (n = 200) covering the same two primary stakeholder types outlined above, with a target sample size of 400. We will seek participants to come from all geographic regions of the United States and systems-involved youth that have a range of different disability types. We will also use RSA 911 case management records to identify states that have the highest successful engagement rate in VR services, and first target those states before expanding recruitment outreach.
description: Presence of Common Scales: 5-point Likert-type "agreement" scale for all question items.
description: The sample required for the Improving VR Outcomes for Justice and/or Foster Involved Youth with Disabilities online surveys is based on the statistical method that will be used to analyze the responses. GPower 3.1.9.2 (Faul, Erdfelder, & Lang, 2007) was utilized to conduct the power analysis to identify the sample required to detect moderately sized group differences. To have 80.08% power to detect small differences (f2 = 0.04) at alpha equal to .05 with multiple regression, a minimum of 384 people are required for the sample. Samples were obtained using word-of-mouth/convenience networks.
description: <b>Participant Group #1:</b> adult professionals (18+) in the United States working for youth serving human services agencies that serve justice and/or foster care system involved youth with disabilities.<br><br><b>Participant Group #2: </b>adults (18+) with disabilities and prior involvement in the U.S. justice and/or foster care systems, as well as their family members.<br>. Smallest Geographic Unit: United States
description: web-based survey; Following the analysis of all focus group and interview transcripts, summative statements for each category of challenge/consideration will be generated to generate items for the Improving VR Outcomes for Justice and/or Foster Involved Youth survey. Following best practice for item development, each statement will focus on a single challenge or consideration, be positively worded, use present tense, and limit qualifiers such as “only”, “merely”, and “many” (Crocker, 1986). Readability will be evaluated to ensure that every question is understandable at the 6th grade reading level. The response scale for each question will be a range of responses from ‘Strongly disagree’ to ‘Strongly agree’, a commonly used format. The survey will take approximately 20-25 minutes to complete.