Existential Well-being among Young People Leaving Care: Self-feeling, Self-realisation, and Belonging

ABSTRACT

This study explores young people’s perceptions of their existential well-being during the transition after leaving care. We use the theoretical framework of ‘existential well-being,’ which is a relational approach. The study deploys participatory action research methodology and involves peer research with 74 young people leaving care aged 17–32 in Finland (2011–2012) and England (2016–2018). The data was gathered through semi-structured interviews and thematically analysed.

We identified three inter-linking categories of existential well-being related to the basic issues of being a person: who one is and where one belongs. Self-feeling involves the importance of how one feels about oneself and one’s physical and mental health and security. Self-realisation relates to one’s hopes and the means for making one’s own decisions in everyday life. Belonging concerns the confidence one expresses in one’s supportive social networks.

The findings highlight that, alongside the practical issues of out-of-home care, attention should increasingly focus on young people's reflections on their own lives, and an ethics of care should be developed to better meet their needs. These findings argue for the need to further support young people’s psychosocial and mental health in child welfare policy and practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Existential well-being
• leaving care
• young people
• social relationships
• mental health

Acknowledgements

This research was a collaboration between Anglia Ruskin University, UK, and the University of Helsinki, Finland, in cooperation with the Essex Children in Care Council in the UK. This project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) grant agreement, no. 702989. We want to thank our collaborators, young people as co-researchers and interviewees, social care workers, and researchers for their valuable input to this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics approval

Ethical approval for this project was given by the Department Research Ethics Panel in the Faculty of Health Social Care and Education at Anglia Ruskin University (Chelmsford and Cambridge) in July 2016 and had further governance approval from the Ethical Board of the English case study organisation. The approval process included informed consent forms, participant information sheets, an ethics application, and an interview schedule.

Additional information

Funding

The project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and innovation funding programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) grant agreement, no. 702989.

Notes on contributors

Maritta Törrönen

Maritta Törrönen is Professor of Social Work at University of Helsinki, Faculty of Social Sciences. Her main research interests concern welfare research, everyday life and well-being, and theory of reciprocity, which have points of reference with social work and social policy, childhood, child welfare, family research, and ethics studies.

Carol Munn-Giddings

Carol Munn-Giddings is Professor Emerita at Anglia Ruskin University. She has recently retired from the Faculty of Health, Education, Medicine and Social Care where she was Professor of Participative Inquiry and Collaborative Practices. Carol specialised in undertaking and supporting participatory forms of research that engaged citizens and practitioners as co-researchers in the research process. Her work was primarily focussed on self-help/mutual aid groups in the community, training and supporting citizen researchers and how the use of participatory arts can improve wellbeing in a variety of community contexts.

Riitta Vornanen

Riitta Vornanen, PhD, works as a Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies at the University of Eastern Finland. Her research focuses on the well-being of children and adolescents with an emphasis on child welfare. One of the central themes in Vornanen's work has been the concept of security and its applications in the context of the well-being of children and adolescents. Recently, the themes of participation and client security in child welfare have been points of interest in her work. She has also contributed to developing specialist training programmes supporting social work related to child welfare in Finland.