Approximately 6% of all children in the United States will enter the foster care system before reaching the age of 18 (Turney & Wildeman, 2016); with an overrepresentation of children from Black, Indigenous, and low-income backgrounds (Administration for Children and
Families, 2021). Ample evidence suggests that child welfare involvement is linked with substance use, externalizing behaviors, criminal system involvement, and long-term mental health challenges (Garrido et al., 2018; McKenna et al., 2021); lack of robust evidence to
understand how to best promote well-being and resilience after children are introduced into the child welfare system continues to represent a central health equity problem.
