Continuity and discontinuity in the transition from care to adulthood

In most industrialized societies, the transition from adolescence to adulthood has changed in many aspects. The so-called individualization of life courses (Heinz & Krüger, 2001) leads to a substantial uncertainty among young... [ view full abstract ]

In most industrialized societies, the transition from adolescence to adulthood has changed in many aspects. The so-called individualization of life courses (Heinz & Krüger, 2001) leads to a substantial uncertainty among young adults about the pace and directions of their personal developmental trajectories (Stauber & Walther, 2002). The transition of young people "at risk" to adulthood tends to be even more complex (Walther et al., 2002) - one group of those considered at risk are young people who grew up in a residential care system – so-called care leavers. There is a growing body of research on care leavers, while most literature highlights the importance of stable relationships as factor of resilience (e.g. Stein 2012), our presentation offers a different perspective on the meaning of stability for care leavers.
We explore continuity and discontinuity in their life course as central aspects of support in the transition process. In line with transnational research approach, we use biographical narratives of three young people that aged-out of public care in Germany and in Israel with different paths of transition. We argue that a successful transition to independent life involves a complex interplay of continuity and discontinuity and suggest a typology of continuity/discontinuity patterns in the transition to adulthood: (1) continuity, (2) transformations, (3) discontinuity as a break, and (4) discontinuity to enable continuity. While current discourse in social work research values stability in care and continuity in the transition from care as a main strategy for successful transition, we found that discontinuities could also lead to positive changes in the life course of young care leavers. These findings imply that in order to enhance care leaver’s agency to cope with transition processes, social work practice should strive to understand the client’s biographically-driven strategies of creating continuity and discontinuity in their life course.