Journal of Student Research 2023

Table 3 Descriptive Statistics of Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 Scale (N = 56)

Journal of Student Research

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Scale Items

Min.

Max.

M

SD

n

Feeling nervous

1.14

.96

0

3

56

Not able to stop worrying

1.00

.95

0

3

56

Worrying too much

1.07

1.06

0

3

56

Trouble relaxing

1.14

1.02

0

3

56

Hard to sit still

0.89

.97

0

3

56

Easily annoyed

1.11

1.02

0

3

56

Something awful might happen 1.04 56 Note. 0 = Not at all, 1 = Several days, 2 = More than half, 3 = Nearly every day Note. Higher means indicated higher anxiety levels. Lower means lower anxiety levels. Table 3: Descriptive Statistics of Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 Scale (N = 56). .97 0 3

Foster Youth and Home Environment

The Positive Home Integration scale (PHI; Waid et al., 2016) was used to explore the experiences of foster youth in their home environment and relationships within the home. The original scale uses 9 items to measure positive home integration; however, to reduce participant burnout, a total of five open-ended questions were selected for this study. Example items included, “To what extent do you feel included in your (foster) family?” and “To what extent do you feel that you are involved in decision-making in your (foster) family?” Participants were encouraged to share as little or as much as they wanted and were provided with essay text boxes within the survey. In addition, participants were asked who they identify as a supportive person in their life with options ranging from family member, friend, romantic or sexual partner. than agreement on survey items for the Family Environment Scale (FES), such as, “Try to keep the peace” and “Family togetherness.” One outlier on this scale was the response to the prompt, “Family members really help and support one another” which was slightly more favorable toward a stronger agreement (M = 3.82, SD = 1.11). Two other items that veered slightly more toward the “neutral” category were “Family members sometimes get so angry they throw things” and “We fight a lot in our family.” Participant responses ranged from 1 (“Strongly Disagree”) to 5 (“Strongly Agree”). Second, we found that overall, participants reported scores that would be interpreted as more mild symptoms on the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-7 (GAD-7). Specifically, a majority of participants responded “not at all” to being bothered and feeling “so restless that it is hard to sit still” (M = 0.89, SD = .97). The two highest mean scores calculated were for the prompts “feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge” and “trouble relaxing” which were 1.14 (SD = .96 and 1.02 respectively) indicating “several days” in the past two weeks they felt bothered. Results Overall, participants in our sample reported slightly more disagreement