Sprecher, Eva A;
Tuitt, Ikesha;
Hill, Debbie;
Midgley, Nick;
Sleed, Michelle;
(2021)
No typical care story: How do care-experienced young people and foster carers understand fostering relationships?
Adoption and Fostering
, 45
(3)
pp. 248-264.
10.1177/03085759211037156.
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Abstract
Although an understanding of the lived experience of foster care relationships can provide valuable information to guide social work practice and policy, few such studies have been carried out. This article presents findings from a qualitative investigation exploring experiences of relationships between foster carers and the young people in their care. Eight care-experienced young people and nine foster carers participated in interviews and focus groups. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to explore their experiences. The insider’s perspective was further amplified through engaging peer researchers with experience of fostering relationships – one a young person who had been in care, the other a long-term carer. Two overarching themes were identified. Firstly, participants made sense of fostering relationships through comparisons with birth family ones, particularly in relation to the impact of care systems, continuing biological family relationships and foster care language. Secondly, previous experiences created barriers to forming positive fostering relationships, but when these were overcome the experience could be life changing. The implications of these findings for social care policy regarding foster carer support, training and matching guidelines are discussed.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | No typical care story: How do care-experienced young people and foster carers understand fostering relationships? |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1177/03085759211037156 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1177/03085759211037156 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). |
| Keywords: | Foster care, relationships, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, participatory research, care experience |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10149591 |
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