The Myth of the Linear Trajectory: Lessons Learned Developing and Testing Interventions for Youth In Foster Care

Intervention research with youth in foster care presents distinctive challenges that complicate traditional models of intervention development and testing. System instability, placement changes, ethical constraints, workforce turnover, and shifting policy contexts frequently disrupt planned research designs and timelines. These challenges can complicate core evaluation tasks, including establishing comparison conditions, defining appropriate outcomes and measurement, and recruiting and retaining participants. As a result, the conventional linear intervention trajectory, from pre-phase discovery through feasibility, proof of concept, efficacy, effectiveness and implementation, is frequently disrupted, compressed, or re-sequenced when working with this population.

This roundtable examines 5 different interventions for youth in foster care, situated at different stages of intervention development and implementation, including: (1) ) Foster youth Leading for mental health and Youth empowerment (F.LY.), a co-developed, peer-led mental health literacy intervention for college students focused on emotion regulation, help-seeking, and understanding the therapeutic process; (2) The National Social Work Enrichment Program (NSEP), a pre-college program designed to increase postsecondary access for youth through skill development in four key areas: college readiness, employment, and relationships; (3) Fostering Higher Education to increase postsecondary access and retention through professional educational advocacy and mentoring; (4) My Life Model to enhance self-determination across contexts through skills coaching and peer support for older youth in care; and (5) Fostering Healthy Futures to foster positive youth development through mentoring and skills training.

The roundtable panelists (each a developer or lead implementer of one of the above 5 models) will discuss core topics including: developing community partnerships, including with public child welfare system decision-makers; adapting intervention components during feasibility and pilot testing; balancing rigor with ethical and practical constraints; redefining markers of progress when traditional phase-based benchmarks are not attainable; and navigating funding and review processes that often assume linear development. Each panelist will draw on their specific intervention to illustrate challenges and adaptations at different stages of development and testing.

The discussion will highlight how intervention development for youth in foster care often unfolds through non-linear, iterative pathways. Each project will illustrate different points along or outside of the traditional intervention trajectory, from early development, pilot testing, efficacy testing, effectiveness, and implementation. Together, the discussants will offer concrete lessons on adapting intervention design and evaluation in settings where instability is common, including stakeholder engagement, youth-centered design, recruitment and retention, and strategies for scale-up and sustainability. The panelists will invite audience engagement around recommendations for social work research methodology, policy, and practice, recognizing that although this work is complex and resource‑intensive, it is essential for the development of contextually sensitive interventions that will improve outcomes for youth in foster care.