Examining Sleep Quality in Adult Foster Care Alumni: Implications for Later Life Health and Well-Being
Abstract
1. Introduction
1.1. Literature Review
1.2. Sleep and Foster Care Alumni
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Participants
2.2. Assessments and Measures
2.3. Demographic Variables and Frequencies
2.4. Statistical Analysis
2.5. Qualitative Interview
2.6. Analysis
2.7. Ethical Considerations
3. Results
3.1. Demographics
3.2. Sleep Predictors
3.3. Health Predictors
3.4. Qualitative Findings
After group homes, I barely slept. There were years of a few hours of sleep a night. And it wasn’t necessarily because I couldn’t sleep like I was having a bad dream. Well, yeah, it was because I couldn’t sleep, but it wasn’t like I was having bad dreams or anything like that. It was just more along the lines of I just couldn’t get my body to rest.
I would say that it’s so weird because I’m 50 now and I still have group home dreams. If I do something to make a co-worker mad, or if I have an argument with my husband, I’ll have a nightmare that night that I’m being sent back to a group home.
I wasn’t on Concerta, and I really believe that my ADHD and being tired all the time, like, my whole BSW is falling asleep in my books. And I fell asleep driving [and was] in a car crash that year. So that was like 2014. So, I have some physical stuff from that.
When Elanor died, my wife ended up getting a brain tumour, it was very sudden, and we thought she had an earache…. I started to have morphine in the house. I started to do more things, to try to sleep and didn’t realize that I was getting addicted to it. Because as a person, I never really had any experience with opiates.
4. Discussion
4.1. Clinical Implications
4.2. Limitations
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Category | Subcategory | Count (%) |
---|---|---|
Age Distribution | 31–40 | 16 (39%) |
41–50 | 9 (22%) | |
51–60 | 6 (15%) | |
61–70 | 5 (12%) | |
71 or older | 5 (12%) | |
Gender | Man | 16 (39%) |
Woman | 23 (56%) | |
Non-binary or Third Gender | 2 (5%) | |
Racial Identity | White | 30 (73%) |
Racialized or Indigenous | 10 (24%) | |
Not Specified | 1 | |
Parental Status | Not a Parent | 8 (20%) |
Parent | 29 (70%) | |
Not Disclosed | 4 (10%) | |
Marital Status | Married | 17 (41%) |
Widowed | 2 (5%) | |
Divorced | 6 (15%) | |
Separated | 2 (5%) | |
Never Married | 14 (34%) | |
Education | Some High School | 7 (17%) |
High School Diploma | 3 (7%) | |
GED | 1 (2%) | |
Some College or Trade School | 4 (10%) | |
Community College or Associate | 5 (12%) | |
Bachelor’s Degree | 10 (25%) | |
Master’s Degree | 11 (27%) | |
PhD or MD | 0 (0%) | |
Intergenerational Placement | First Generation | 26 (63%) |
Parent/Grandparent History | 9 (22%) | |
Third Generation | 4 (10%) | |
Unreported | 2 (5%) | |
Time in Out-of-Home Care | 1–2 Years | 6 (15%) |
3–4 Years | 8 (20%) | |
5–7 Years | 12 (29%) | |
7–10 Years | 5 (12%) | |
10–15 Years | 7 (17%) | |
15+ Years | 3 (7%) |
Models | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Variables | (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) |
Quality of Placement | 0.505 ** (0.219) | 0.421 ** (0.221) | 0.549 ** (0.284) | |
Friendship Support Network | 0.360 * (0.088) | 0.274 ± (0083) | 0.233 (0.104) | |
Age | −0.104 (0.428) | |||
Gender | 0.186 (0.849) | |||
Race | 0.116 (0.956) | |||
Hispanic | −0.077 (2.33) | |||
Education | −0.027 (0.222) | |||
Annual Income | −0.001 (0.211) | |||
Constant Adjusted R square | 2.901 *** 0.24 | 3.152 ** 0.11 | 1.775 ** 0.26 | 1.188 0.23 |
Models | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Variables | (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) |
Sleep | −0.451 ** (0.345) | −0.279 ± (0.325) | −0.328 * (0.286) | |
Friendship Support Network | −0.579 *** (0.181) | −0.477 ** (0.187) | −0.599 *** (0.188) | |
Age | −0.268 (0.691) | |||
Gender | 0.141 (1.518) | |||
Race | 0.058 (1.676) | |||
Hispanic | 0.168 (4.110) | |||
Education | 0.159 (0.375) | |||
Annual Income | −0.065 (0.365) | |||
Constant Adjusted R square | 22.37 *** 0.18 | 24.18 *** 0.32 | 26.23 *** 0.37 | 20.67 ** 0.54 |
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Keller, A.; Mann-Feder, V.; Collin-Vézina, D.; MacKenzie, M.J. Examining Sleep Quality in Adult Foster Care Alumni: Implications for Later Life Health and Well-Being. Healthcare 2025, 13, 1694. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13141694
Keller A, Mann-Feder V, Collin-Vézina D, MacKenzie MJ. Examining Sleep Quality in Adult Foster Care Alumni: Implications for Later Life Health and Well-Being. Healthcare. 2025; 13(14):1694. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13141694
Chicago/Turabian StyleKeller, Amanda, Varda Mann-Feder, Delphine Collin-Vézina, and Michael J. MacKenzie. 2025. "Examining Sleep Quality in Adult Foster Care Alumni: Implications for Later Life Health and Well-Being" Healthcare 13, no. 14: 1694. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13141694
APA StyleKeller, A., Mann-Feder, V., Collin-Vézina, D., & MacKenzie, M. J. (2025). Examining Sleep Quality in Adult Foster Care Alumni: Implications for Later Life Health and Well-Being. Healthcare, 13(14), 1694. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13141694