Havlicek Judy, Holland Sally, Taussig Heather
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Cardiff University, Wales.
Fam Soc. 2025 Feb 28. doi: 10.1177/10443894241303193.
As young people age out of foster care, many seek out their birth parents and extended families, but little is known about how these connections are navigated given past separations. Drawing from data previously collected from young people who aged out of foster care in a metropolitan area of one Western state (=57), this study analyzed the responses from 53 young adults between the ages of 18 and 22 who answered two open ended questions about (1) re-connecting with birth families after foster care, and (2) the degree to which relationships were formed with birth parents. A three-step analytic process searched for themes in the data and distilled three groups: (1) Reconnected & navigating a relationship (n=36; 68%), (2) Always connected & in a relationship (n=8; 15%), and (3) Not connected & not interested in a relationship (n=9; 17%). Implications for practice and recommendations for future research are offered.
随着年轻人从寄养环境中长大成人，许多人开始寻找自己的亲生父母和大家庭，但鉴于过去的分离情况，对于如何建立这些联系却知之甚少。本研究从先前在西部某州一个大都市地区脱离寄养环境的年轻人（=57）收集的数据中提取信息，分析了53名年龄在18至22岁之间的年轻人的回答，这些年轻人回答了两个开放式问题，一是关于（1）寄养后与亲生家庭重新建立联系，二是关于与亲生父母建立关系的程度。一个三步分析过程在数据中寻找主题，并提炼出三组：（1）重新建立联系并维持关系（n = 36；68%），（2）一直保持联系并维持关系（n = 8；15%），以及（3）未建立联系且对建立关系不感兴趣（n = 9；17%）。文中还给出了对实践的启示以及对未来研究的建议。
