Displaying 1 - 10 of 32
This article aims to build knowledge, from a life-course perspective, of foster carers’ views of the transition from care to adulthood for young people with mental health problems by interviewing carers from foster homes in Norway and Sweden. The following research questions were addressed: How do mental health problems affect the care-leaving process and the linked lives between young people and foster carers? What impacts do young people’s mental health problems have on the timing of lives and social age when they leave a placement in care? The authors…
For centuries, residential child and youth care systems worldwide have provided homes for vulnerable children and adolescents. The implementation of children's rights, especially the right of participation, is assessed as an important base for promoting the best interests of the child in an out-of-home care environment.
Featuring contributions from distinguished international authors, this volume offers an in-depth understanding of crucial participation processes and underlying power structures when involving young people in decision-making about their care and everyday life in different…
In arrangements for children’s participation in child welfare systems, professionals’ interpretations of children’s views on family and their own constructions of family will impact children’s conditions for expressing feelings and moral agency. This article analyses the accounts of children’s spokespersons in Norway, whose mandate is to speak with and forward children’s views in care proceedings.
The analyses show how constructions of loyalty, family interdependence, and individualism may inform spokespersons’ interpretations of children’s views, and thereby their exploratory practices in…
Abstract
Care leavers need support in the transition to adulthood. Care leavers in Norway benefit from the universalistic and somewhat generous Nordic welfare model. However, this model is constructed to meet general needs identified in the whole population. More specific needs in smaller groups may not be so well planned for. The article discusses this dilemma in the light of two previously published articles by the author and two co‐authors, where the topics are the history of leaving care support in Norway and how the Nordic welfare model may represent a problematic frame for leaving…
Abstract
This article explores the possibilities of a systemic approach in the support of parents whose children are placed in public care. The article is based on a qualitative study interviewing six parents who have received support from Norwegian Family Counselling Services (FCS) and seven systemic family therapists from FCS. Both groups were interviewed individually and in focus groups. The findings suggest that parents experienced less judgement from therapists in FCS than from caseworkers in CPS. Even if it could be challenging, the systemic therapists found a systemic approach…
Abstract
This paper explores how young people who have been in out‐of‐home care develop a positive agentic capacity. The analyses are based on longitudinal biographical interviews with 24 care experienced young people (age 16–32 years) living in Norway. At the time of the interviews, they were in the education system or working and described themselves as ‘doing well’. Through the application of a relational understanding of agency, this paper provides in‐depth insights into how relations shape the biography, identity and decisions of young people with care backgrounds, scaffold…
Abstract
There is a growing literature on how children are heard in the field of child welfare, often with indications of how difficult it may be to fulfil their right to be heard. This article examines children’s spokespersons’ accounts of speaking with children in care proceedings about their views and wishes. The study consists of interviews with 22 children’s spokespersons in Norway. Study findings question whether children in care proceedings understand the invitation to voice their wishes as confined to matters relating to the proceedings. Based on their accounts of their practices,…
Abstract
This article studies how three groups of professional decision-makers – child welfare workers, experts on children and judges – exercise discretion in decisions on adoption from care in the Norwegian child welfare system. The analysis is based on near 500 decision-makers’ responses to a vignette about David, a four-year-old boy whose foster parents want to adopt him. After reading the vignette, decision-makers were asked to choose a measure for David: adoption or continued foster care. They were thereupon asked (1) which specific features of the case were decisive to their…
Abstract
Foster children are at risk for developmental challenges in several domains, such as cognitive functioning. The aim of the present study was therefore to investigate cognitive functioning at age 8 years among 39 foster children (FC) compared to 36 children in a non-foster comparison group (NFC). Furthermore, to investigate possible predictors of early functioning on FC’s functioning at age 8 years, in addition to possible different developmental trajectories within and between the two groups. Results revealed that FC performed below the mean on all WISC-IV index scores as well as…
Abstract
This paper addresses the conceptualization of ‘outcomes’ for care experienced people through an in-depth longitudinal study of 75 young adults in Denmark, England and Norway. ‘Outcome’ studies have played a crucial role in raising awareness of the risk of disadvantage that care experienced people face, across a variety of domains including education and employment. These studies may have an unintended consequence, however, if care experienced people are predominantly viewed, and studied, through a problem-focused lens. The danger is that policy and research neglects other –…