MacLeod, Gale

Macallister, James

Dallas-Childs, Robin

2023-08-29T11:56:16Z

2023-08-29T11:56:16Z

2023-08-29

This study aimed to explore the experiences of children and young people who have spent time in residential child care (RCC) in Scotland. Identity formation is one of the primary psychological tasks of adolescence. Having a positive sense of self is closely related to feelings of belonging, a sense of agency and self-esteem. But the physiological, cognitive and social changes that occur during this period can make self and identity development particularly challenging. In Scotland, most young people in residential child care (RCC) are teenagers, many with complex, high levels of need relating to experiences of abuse or neglect prior to being moved into care. In recent history, discourses around RCC have been negative, with an ideological preference for family-based care and historical abuse scandals contributing to its perception as a care placement of last resort, despite research that suggests it can benefit young people. Care practices that focused on child protection prevailed in a political culture that sought to manage children, reduce short term risk and improve measurable outcomes. Relationships, the core of care, became a secondary concern. Within this context, young people in RCC undertook the task of self and identity development, a process further complicated by the disconnection from family and home that the move into care entails. Despite these unique and complicating factors, there is a relative lack of research into how young people in RCC develop identities and coherent selves. Taking a narrative inquiry approach and drawing broadly on sociological and philosophical literature, I sought the views of 13 children and young adults to better understand the ways in which their senses of self and identities presented and evolved over time. Findings were structured under two key headings: ‘Journey to myself’ and ‘Managing myself, making family and the search to belong’. The first of these describes the finding that young people’s experiences prior to care, within care and beyond can be made sense of in terms of an increasing understanding of, or journey to themselves. Relationships with at least one key person, most often an adult in the RCC home or school, were instrumental in helping young people make sense of who they were, who they are, and who they might become. Being supported to help make sense of missing parts of young people’s stories was an apparent prerequisite to a positive, securer sense of self. Second, the residential care experience, and sometimes school and leisure activities could provide rich opportunity for self- development. Third, self-development was supported by creating opportunities for resignification through enabling young people to explore new, more salient identities that helped them develop a positive self-image. Fourth, young people demonstrated that they managed other socially imposed social identities such as their place of birth or care identity, but whilst this was complex, it was for some important to a coherent sense of self. Fifth, RCC homes, and sometimes schools, were able to create the conditions for social recognition (Honneth, 1995), a pre-requisite to the development of autonomy and self-realisation that enabled young people to be both participants in and active contributors to their communities. The study makes both empirical and theoretical contributions to knowledge. Young people in RCC were active agents in the creation of extended communities and networks of support, drawing on concepts of the family and home to create a sense of belonging that lasted beyond care. Securer senses of self-emerged from the feeling of connection to these family-like networks and the wider community. The sense of agency in the building of these networks was an important feature of the process and has implications for RCC practice with regard to ways this might be respected. Second, trusting, caring and reciprocal relationships with key adults that lasted beyond care were the primary conduit for the development of an enduring positive and coherent sense of self. Character role models were shown to be the preserve of adults and in relation to these individuals, the most significant self- development took place. This suggests the importance of character in conceptions of professional identities of those working with RCC experienced young people. Third, the work of Beauvoir is helpful in illuminating the experiences of childhood and that her philosophical thinking complements earlier sociologically informed studies that illustrate how RCC might create the conditions for childhood and positive identity development. The day-to-day rhythms and rituals of residential care created a sense of warmth and home that made young people feel wanted. Here, Beauvoir’s account of childhood freedom as synonymous with irresponsibility might explain why some young people had such positive experiences of RCC; it responded to their deep existential need to be free from the moral responsibilities of life, to which many have been introduced too early. Linking Beauvoir’s ethics to child social care represents a new way to conceive of aspects of residential child care. With its focus on freedom, it may offer a less pathological and deterministic view of the agency of young people in care than that found in more conventional approaches, such as attachment theory. Fourth, in making the case for the inescapability of ambiguity (Beauvoir, 2018), this finding supports practice that conceives care giving as inherently context bound, complex and relational. In leaning into this complexity, or to use Beauvoir’s term, ‘facticity’, the approach lends further credibility to practices that foreground moral and practical elements of care, where the arena is the everyday lives of young people. Social pedagogical orientations, Child and Youth Care Practice (CYCP) approaches and practice guided by care ethics, for example, are consistent with this theorisation. Finally, young peoples’ journey to self-understanding was one that broadly moved from one that was self-regarding to one that was more compassionate and self and other- regarding. Young people, through being cared for, became carers to others. For some this was reflected in their educational and employment choices post-care. This has implications for how RCC experienced children and young people are perceived and the opportunities for re-signification that might be provided for them. Reflecting care ethics perspectives, participants were as much carers as they were cared for and claimed this identity, often proudly, in young adulthood.

https://hdl.handle.net/1842/40891

http://dx.doi.org/10.7488/era/3644

en

The University of Edinburgh

Dallas-Childs, R. & Henderson, D. (2020). Home and belonging: Mapping what matters when moving one. Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care, 19(2), 32-49.

MacLeod, G., Dallas-Childs, R., Brough, C. & Toye, M. (2021). 'She just got me’: Supporting care-experienced young people negotiating relationships and identities at school. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs. 21(1), 25-35. https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-3802.12543

Self

Identity

Residential child care

Agency

Childhood

de Beauvoir

Honneth

Relationships

Belonging

“It was a thing about belonging and identity. I just felt, this is who I am”: residential care experienced children and young people actively (re)creating identity, family and community

Thesis or Dissertation

Doctoral

PhD Doctor of Philosophy