Date of Award

10-16-2023

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Social Work

First Advisor

Julia Pryce

Abstract

The current study looks at the experience of well-being among young people who experienced foster care in the United States. The objective of the project was to seek a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of well-being from the perspective of those with most direct knowledge of it: youth in care themselves. Chapter 1 includes an overview of the social, historical, policy, and clinical landscape underpinning the study, starting with a summary of the current state of the child welfare system in the United States. This includes a look at two key contextual factors – structural racism and neoliberalism – that impact child welfare. This is followed by the relevant history and policy framings of well-being as a concept of importance within the field. Then, the chapter explores various theories and models of well-being that are relevant to the focal population of this study. Finally, it offers a comprehensive summary of the outcomes, risks and strengths of youth in care. Chapter 2 reviews the extant literature base related to defining the well-being concept in child welfare. This includes literature in the realms of child welfare policy, research and practice from the US and around the world. The latter part of the chapter is dedicated to methodological considerations that can best engage young people in the research process, which informed the current study’s design. The methodology for the study was an integrated qualitative approach combining phenomenology, Participatory Action Research (PAR) and photovoice-inspired art elicitation. The next three chapters relate directly to the current study. The methodological process of this study is covered in Chapter 3. The chapter begins with an exploration of the researcher’s positionality and other factors that informed the research. Then, it describes in detail all phases of the multi-faceted approach to the methods, from engaging young people as co-researchers who helped shape the study design, through the participant recruitment, data collection, and comprehensive qualitative analysis. Chapter 4 outlines the comprehensive findings, which through the researcher’s theoretical sensitivity, point to a framework of well-being for youth in the child welfare system. The framework considers the trauma context of youths' previous and on-going experiences of harm and loss, then illustrates a set of elements that either contribute to or detract from their well-being in and through the system. The youth-informed conceptualization of well-being concludes this chapter. Lastly, these findings are discussed in Chapter 5, as are the methodological processes employed to reach the results. I also relate the study process and findings back to the literature of the first two chapters. This final chapter concludes with a set of implications and recommendations for the field of child welfare and beyond based on the study’s process and results, while acknowledging the study’s limitations. The study’s well-being framework offers a promising direction for future policy, practice and research activities to understand, measure and intervene to provide for the well-being of youth in care.

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