To Dream the Impossible Dream: Care Leavers' Challenges and Barriers in Pursuing Their Future Expectations and Goals

Background:  Young adults who leave care are at a crucial point in their lives. As they leave care, their expectations and aspirations as well as their planning for their future lives are especially important. Although earlier studies examined these vulnerable young people’s challenges in transition to adulthood, they did not explore these challenges with regards to their own plans and expectations for their future. Therefore, this study aims to explore the challenges and barriers young adults who left care have in the attempt to realize their expectations and pursue their future aspirations and plans.

Methods: The sample included 25 young adults who were emancipated from the most common types of out-of-home placements in Israel (therapeutic residential care placements, youth villages and foster care). The selection criteria were: young adults in their early emerging adulthood (18-25) who spent at least two years in care from various primary occupation (e.g.,  army service, further studies, employed and unemployed) and different accommodations (e.g., living at home with their parents, living in supervised flats for care leavers in the community, or living alone/with roommates). Also, young adults from the most dominant groups (Israel, Former Soviet Union, Ethiopia). A semi-structured interview protocol consisted of open-ended questions. All interviews were recorded and transcribed. Each interview lasted approximately 35 minutes, during which the young adults were asked to describe themselves (background, occupation, age, etc..), and were asked about their expectations for the future, plans, goals and their barriers and challenges in realizing them. Analysis included theoretical content analysis and quantitative analysis of the recurrence of themes that arose.

Results: Three major themes arose from the young adults’ descriptions. The first theme was weak and unsupportive social ties (N= 23; 84%). This major theme concerned both sense of loneliness and social isolation and lack of support and guidance from adult figures. Also, within this theme, the young adults recognized the past and present influence of negative social relationships. The second theme concerned the complex relationships with their biological families (N = 18; 72%) and included three subthemes: the family's dependency on the young adults, lack of support and belief in the young adults’ aspirations, and insufficient emotional and practical support in future decisions. The last major theme was the young adults' poor personal capital (N = 23; 92 %), which included the young adults' struggle with past and present economic hardship and educational difficulties. All of these challenges combined comprise a barrier to pursuing their future aspirations.

Conclusions and implications: The findings emphasize the connection between the challenges care leavers struggle with in their transition to independent living, their future outlook, and chosen paths in the context of emerging adulthood theory. Implications for practice suggest the importance of creating supportive follow up frameworks that allow care leavers to strengthen their social ties, build new positive and supportive relationships, and consult about future decisions, in order to increase their future possibilities and opportunities.