In Search of Family: Dually-Involved Black and Latina Girls' and Young Women's Experiences of Relational Loss in the Child Welfare and Juvenile Legal Systems

Background and Purpose

Youth and young adults involved with the United States child welfare system (CWS) are entering the juvenile legal system (JLS) at rates higher than their peers, and Black, Indigenous, and Girls of Color are more likely than both their white boy and girl counterparts to crossover from the CWS to the JLS. While scholarship on dual-involvement focuses on girls' demographics and system trajectories, less attention has been paid to the relational and emotional impacts of dual-involvement, including how girls and young women conceptualize their relationships following prolonged system contact. The current study uses Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to analyze dually-involved Black and Latina girls and young women’s perspectives on 1) their trajectories from the CWS to the JLS and during reentry, and 2) their relationships, and experiences of loss as a result of dual-involvement.

Methods

In this study, I analyze a subset of semi-structured interviews with Black and Latina girls and young women (N=10) conducted as part of a larger study with dually-involved youth (N=31) and adult professionals in the CWS and JLS (N=21). IPA calls for a small number of interviews conducted with a homogenous group in order to develop an in-depth understanding of the key elements of an experience, as well as the sense-making mechanisms that group members use to conceptualize and categorize that experience. Following IPA steps, I analyzed each transcript for descriptive, linguistic, and conceptual elements; developed emergent themes at the transcript level; and collated emergent themes into superordinate themes across all interviews.

Results

Study findings suggest that dually-involved Black and Latina girls and young women order their system trajectories – from their homes and communities into the CWS, crossover to the JLS, and during reentry – through the lens of family. Participants’ trajectories are marked by missing or losing family or familial relationships prior to or as a result of system-involvement; constructing relationships within institutional contexts to fill relational gaps or mend frayed social networks; and projecting an ideal family, and an ideal of family, as a motivating factor for the goals, behaviors, and actions that they pursue during the reentry process. Importantly, the experience of relational loss is one that bookends entry into the CWS and JLS, as well as exit back into the community, and constitutes one of the primary harms associated with dual-involvement.

Conclusions and Implications

In these findings, I contribute to the existing literature on relational and ambiguous loss associated with system involvement by demonstrating how girls and young women experience loss pertaining to relationships constructed within institutional contexts such as the CWS and JLS. At the practice level, the findings point to the need for developing services and programs that are sensitive and responsive to the pervasive and persistent nature of loss and grief in the CWS and the JLS, especially for dually-involved youth. The findings also underscore the need for prioritizing policies that maintain relational permanence in both the CWS and JLS contexts, including decarceration efforts that prevent youth-family separation.