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<p>Young people transitioning from out-of-home care to adulthood encounter an abrupt change in status dictated by government regulations, which call their social ties into question. Despite frequently challenging or disrupted family relationships, international research shows that family becomes highly salient again during this period. This article examines how young people with out-of-home care experience negotiate the discrepancies between their lived family experiences, the socially constructed, normative expectations of family and the biographically shaped images of family that accompany them, and how they subsequently position themselves in relation to family.</p><p>Drawing on 41 qualitative, biographically oriented interviews and egocentric network maps with care leavers in Austria, the study analyses processes of self-positioning towards the family of origin and alternative, self-created family configurations. Using grounded theory and qualitative network analysis, six types of family-related positionings were identified, ranging from consciously chosen and self-constructed forms of family to strong adherence to biological kinship, intensified ambivalence, a lack of familial belonging, and identity formation through “genetic thinking”.</p><p>These findings highlight the enduring relevance of family references in care leavers’ transitions, particularly for social support, belonging, and identity development. They demonstrate how young people navigate the continuum between doing family on their own terms and aligning themselves with socially dominant images of family, while negotiating normative expectations, biographical ties and opportunities for self-formation.</p>

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The Relevance of Family in the Transition from Care to Adulthood: Self-positioning in the Tension Between Biographically Constituted Images of Family and Family-related Experiences

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月3日

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  • Stephan Sting,
  • Georg Streissguertl,
  • Julia Weissnar,
  • Anna Ebner

摘要

Young people transitioning from out-of-home care to adulthood encounter an abrupt change in status dictated by government regulations, which call their social ties into question. Despite frequently challenging or disrupted family relationships, international research shows that family becomes highly salient again during this period. This article examines how young people with out-of-home care experience negotiate the discrepancies between their lived family experiences, the socially constructed, normative expectations of family and the biographically shaped images of family that accompany them, and how they subsequently position themselves in relation to family.

Drawing on 41 qualitative, biographically oriented interviews and egocentric network maps with care leavers in Austria, the study analyses processes of self-positioning towards the family of origin and alternative, self-created family configurations. Using grounded theory and qualitative network analysis, six types of family-related positionings were identified, ranging from consciously chosen and self-constructed forms of family to strong adherence to biological kinship, intensified ambivalence, a lack of familial belonging, and identity formation through “genetic thinking”.

These findings highlight the enduring relevance of family references in care leavers’ transitions, particularly for social support, belonging, and identity development. They demonstrate how young people navigate the continuum between doing family on their own terms and aligning themselves with socially dominant images of family, while negotiating normative expectations, biographical ties and opportunities for self-formation.