Embedded in relations—Interactions as a source of agency and life opportunities for care‐experienced young adults

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 positive possibilities and enhance their life opportunities.

The significance of connectedness: avoidant personality disorder patients’ subjective experiences of change after attending a specialized treatment program

“…The way we perceive ourselves as being capable of agency is formed by our developmental experiences of how we were able to influence the conditions in our lives and determine our actions, as opposed to just becoming a product of what happens to us ( Bandura, 2006 ; Huber et al, 2019a ). A further expansion of our understanding of agency includes the concept of relational agency, which considers individuals to be interactants rather than singular actors ( Burkitt, 2016 ; Gundersen, 2021 ). As interactants, we partake in interplays of both power imbalances between the actors and mutual interdependence and varying degrees of emotional relatedness that will influence our sense of agency within the various interpersonal and social relations ( Gundersen, 2021 ).…”

“…A further expansion of our understanding of agency includes the concept of relational agency, which considers individuals to be interactants rather than singular actors ( Burkitt, 2016 ; Gundersen, 2021 ). As interactants, we partake in interplays of both power imbalances between the actors and mutual interdependence and varying degrees of emotional relatedness that will influence our sense of agency within the various interpersonal and social relations ( Gundersen, 2021 ). Power imbalances are considered an inherent element of another important social motive, namely, the formation of social ranks and competition for resources through behavioral strategies related to dominance and submission (e.g., Liotti and Gilbert, 2011 ; Dimaggio et al, 2015 ).…”

Youth in Transition: Exploring a Life Course Perspective on Leaving care in Africa

“…Harnessing the advocacy skills of youth who have left care may also encourage their engagement in broader community and political activity and help to give a stronger voice for care-leavers to achieve social change. Participatory practice, peer mentorship, advocacy roles, and participation in research and policy development are ways in which youth leaving care can collaborate with peers and allies to enact change and develop new approaches to promoting interdependent adult lives (Gundersen, 2021).…”

“…Greater efforts are needed at policy, practice, and community levels to bolster care-leavers’ relational connectedness. This requires not only an interdependence focus to preparation and aftercare work with individual care-leavers, but also macro policy and structural interventions to promote their socio-economic wellbeing and address broader social inequality (Frimpong-Manso, 2019; Van Breda & Pinkerton, 2020; Brady & Gilligan, 2020b; Gundersen, 2021). Harnessing the advocacy skills of youth who have left care may also encourage their engagement in broader community and political activity and help to give a stronger voice for care-leavers to achieve social change.…”

“…Contemporary life course theory has shifted from deterministic, linear life cycle models toward a life course approach that acknowledges the social construction of generational categories, the complexities of youth transitions and wider environmental, temporal, and structural issues (Elder et al, 2003; Furlong 2013; Hunt, 2016). This perspective is particularly relevant to understanding care-leaving youth who may not easily meet developmental norms and for whom the relational, social and structural constraints on their transitions to adult life differ (Dima & Skehill, 2011; Gundersen, 2021; Horrocks, 2002; Storø, 2017). Life-course researchers in the Global North have highlighted the relevance of three key life course concepts for care-leavers: biography (Ferguson, 2018; Höjer & Sjöblom, 2014), linked lives (Brady & Gilligan, 2020a), and agency (Bengtsson et al, 2020; Brady & Gilligan, 2020b).…”