Pathway planning with unaccompanied young people leaving care: Biographical narratives of past, present, and future.

Abstract

This article presents findings from a qualitative study with Unaccompanied Young People (UYP) who have sought asylum alone in the UK without a parent or guardian. The findings explore how UYP create biographical narratives of their past, present, and future as they prepare to leave care, suggesting that UYP who have settled immigration status create coherent biographical narratives that reconcile the past with a positive imagined future. Themes of return and reciprocity emerged in their narratives as they developed aspirations to reunite with their families and return support received in the past by succeeding in education and careers. Unaccompanied young people who did not have settled status struggled to create biographical narratives and could not imagine the future or the past. These findings have significant implications for pathway planning with UYP, suggesting the need to recognise the interconnected nature of the past, present, and future as well as the role of families and education in future plans. Pathway planning for UYP with uncertain immigration status can be complex as young people struggle to maintain a biographical narrative. Further research is necessary to support young people and professionals with these challenges.

Improving the mental health and mental health support available to adolescents in out-of-home care via Adolescent-Focused Low-Intensity Life Story Work: a realist review

“…Forty-four documents contributed to the development of these CMOCs 18–22 26 27 34–39 41 42 45 46 48 49 52–55 57 59 63 65 68 69 71 74 77–79 83–92. The review shows narratives most valued by adolescents were constructed collaboratively with caring adult support.…”

“…The caring adult(s) and adolescent discuss these, helping the adolescent to process and consolidate their experiences. This in turn serves to generate positive future expectations and helps a therapeutic alliance develop between adolescent and caring adult(s) 7 27 37 38 47 49 61–63 84–86 88…”

Transitional support interventions for care leavers: A scoping review

“…These papers argued that the inclusion of the young person's family in interventions designed to support transitions to independent living could also help the young person to manage difficult feelings and provide emotional and social support (Fernández-Simo et al, 2022). Whilst targeted interventions designed to facilitate opportunities for reunification with family during the transition to independent living were reported as being important for some young people, Devenney (2017) explained that the helping relationship with family members is lost to unaccompanied young people. As a result, the author concludes that extra care is needed to support unaccompanied young people whose transition might be complicated further by the absence of a family network and uncertainty about immigration status.…”

“…Despite the reported advantages, the important intersection of support that could be provided by education staff, employers and training facilitators was also cited as a cause of tension for unaccompanied young people. According to Devenney (2017) any uncertainty in immigration status can actively hinder a positive transition to adulthood as young people struggle to maintain their own biographical narrative or engage in employment, education and training opportunities. Drawing on Giddens (1991) concept of ontological security, Devenney (2017Devenney ( : 1315 argues that: the creation and maintenance of coherent biographical narratives helps [unaccompanied young people] sustain a sense of self that is stable across time, space, and context.…”

At foregribe det ukendte

“…De fleste studier med fokus på tidsperspektivet er retrospektive analyser, hvor der med udgangspunkt i unges situation her og nu spørges til, hvordan fortiden bliver relevant for nutidens valg (Fransson & Storø, 2011), hvordan unge set i bakspejlet forholder sig til deres familie (Andersson, 2005(Andersson, , 2009, hvordan unge reflekterer over det, de er optagede af (Hung & Appleton, 2016) og den sammenhaengende tråd mellem fortid og fremtid (Devenney, 2017). Trods deres forskellige teoretiske forankringer (fra tilknytningsteori over poststrukturalisme til Margaret Archers realistiske teori om "agency") viser disse studier, at anbringelsen uundgåeligt saetter gang i unges refleksioner over det, der er vigtigt for dem (Hung & Appleton, 2016), deres holdninger til familien (Andersson, 2005) og unges håndtering af fortidens vanskeligheder (Fransson & Storø, 2011).…”