 No Home Away from Home: A Qualitative Study of Care Leavers' Perceptions and Experiences of 'Home'Kristin Natalier and Guy Johnson Housing Studies, 2015, vol. 30, issue 1, 123-138 Abstract: This paper explores the cultural and biographical specificity of home by examining the connections between young people's experiences of out-of-home care and their definitions of home. The paper draws on 77 in-depth interviews with young people who had lived away from their families in the Australian out-of-home care system. The paper applies a psycho-social conceptualisation of 'home' to argue that home was a crucial symbol through which these young people imagined a less challenging future and claimed identities of 'being normal'. The majority remembered their time in out-of-home care as a time of instability and insecurity in terms of both housing and relationships; they did not feel at home in these contexts. These histories informed young people's experiences and imagining of home and their sense of identity within and after out-of-home care, as they defined home as fundamentally different from out-of-home care. Their definitions incorporated shelter, emotional well-being, control, routine, caring relationships and stability. Date: 2015 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:chosxx:v:30:y:2015:i:1:p:123-138 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/02673037.2014.943698 Access Statistics for this article Housing Studies is currently edited by Chris Leishman, Moira Munro, Ray Forrest, Alex Schwartz, Hal Pawson and John Flint More articles in Housing Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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