Care Leavers, (young) people who lived in foster or residential care, are a vulnerable group mostly experiencing bad conditions and outcomes on their way to adulthood. In Germany, care often ends at the age of 18, although... [ view full abstract ]
Care Leavers, (young) people who lived in foster or residential care, are a vulnerable group mostly experiencing bad conditions and outcomes on their way to adulthood. In Germany, care often ends at the age of 18, although there is a legal basis which guarantees the extension of care. In comparison, youth in Germany lives at home until the age of 25 on average. Furthermore, care leavers often have critical educational pathways, achieve lower educational attainment, are more often homeless and dependent on drugs and alcohol and more prone to suffer from mental illness. Finally, they get married earlier and become parents at a young age. Although care leavers are disadvantaged in Germany they have less financial, structural and social support than their peers.
Compared to international studies and research projects, German research is lacking a fundamental involvement in the topic. Especially longitudinal studies and larger surveys on care leavers from foster care are almost missing. Moreover, research often does not focus on the perspective of the addressees; to date, studies mostly include surveys and interviews with foster parents or employees from youth offices or fostering services, not with care leavers themselves.
Based on the analysis of the research situation in Germany, my PhD – presenting results on the EUSARF-Conference – aims at obtaining new data on care leavers from foster care focussing on the addressees’ perspective: the young adults. Using problem-centred interviews (Witzel 2000) I ask care leavers (approximately 18-25 years) how they experienced their transition from care to adulthood. The following topics are included in my questionnaire: support while living in foster care, support after leaving foster care, family/doing family, independence. Additionally, I carry out a small quantitative survey at the end of the interviews asking the care leavers about the ten most important people in their transition to adulthood and how they were supported (financially, emotionally, practical everyday life, etc.). In this regard, my theoretical concept is „social support“ (Nestmann 2010). The author describes social support as an important criterion for coping with critical life courses and transitions in lifetime. My analysis is based on the Grounded Theory Methodology (Strauss/Corbin 1996).
My previous evaluations show that care leavers from foster care experience ambivalent relations in their transition out of care into adulthood. Relations to more or less important people are more a burden than a relief. If they receive social support they often name other significant people, like bosses at work (e.g. at their vocational training). But getting help from these people mostly happens incidentally/by chance. This is one of the main reasons why in this presentation I will argue that care leavers need continuous and reliable relations in the whole process of leaving care.
Literature:
Nestmann, F. (2010): Soziale Unterstützung – Social Support. In: Schröer, W./Schweppe, C. (Hrsg.): Enzyklopädie Erziehungswissenschaft Online. Fachgebiet Soziale Arbeit. Grundbegriffe. Weinheim: Beltz Juventa. DOI 10.3262/EEO 14100113.
Strauss, A. L./Corbin, J. M. (1996): Grounded Theory: Grundlagen Qualitativer Sozialforschung. Weinheim: Beltz Psychologie Verlags Union.
Witzel, A. (2000): Das problemzentrierte Interview [25 Absätze]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung. 1 (1). Art. 22. Online: http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1132/2520 (last access: 03.03.2016).
