“Family? … Not Just Blood”: Discursive Constructions of “Family” in Adult, Former Foster Children’s Narratives

“They’re Always Complicated but That’s the Meaning of Family in My Eyes”: Homeless Youth Making Sense of “Family” and Family Relationships

“…Significantly, moving beyond structural conceptualizations of what makes a family, this study’s findings demonstrate that relationships based on reliability, closeness, and trust are also produced as being family (Segrin & Flora, 2011). This, in turn, reinforces the notion that how one “does” (Morgan, 1996, 2011) or “displays” (Finch, 2007) family plays a significant role in how young people decide what and who counts as family, and this, it would appear, is also evident in relationships that are formed with individuals who are outside the family of origin or where a biological connection is not present (Braithwaite et al, 2010; Thomas et al, 2017).…”

“…Although not widely researched globally, Kendrick’s (2013) exploration of children’s experiences of residential care in the United Kingdom found that young people described their positive experiences in care facilities as engendering a sense of family that was analogous to being part of a family system, often referring to care staff using kinship terminology. In a similar vein, Thomas and colleagues’ study of adult former foster children in Iowa, Illinois, revealed that many care-experienced individuals depicted a fluid understanding of “family” that was based on performativity and historical connection, the latter of which, in particular, “operated to create family when biogenetic ties were lacking” (Thomas et al, 2017, p. 250).…”

“…Children and young people can be “creative about who they include in definitions of ‘my family’” (Mason & Tipper, 2008, p. 441) and place considerable weight on the perceived quality of a familial relationship, often privileging a sense of “love” and “care” in their conceptualization of what family is (Brannen, Heptinstall, & Bhopal, 2000; Smart, Neale, & Wade, 2001; Kendrick, 2013; Thomas, Jackl, & Crowley, 2017). Young people may also at times view these factors or qualities as “overriding a structural relationship” (Mason & Tipper, 2008, p. 442).…”

Voicing the system: How formerly fostered adults make meaning of the U.S. foster care system

“…Participants were emerging (18- to 30-year-old) adults who self-identified as remembering spending more than 1 week in foster care in Iowa, Illinois, or Wisconsin during their childhood (these states have implemented similar foster-related policies and, together, have been the site of longitudinal studies). Data were to be collected at least until the point of saturation (see Corbin & Strauss, 2008); in similar research, saturation has been reached between 8 and 26 narratives (e.g., Suter et al, 2014; Thomas et al, 2017; Thomas & Scharp, 2017). To ensure the ability to perform verification procedures, all qualified individuals who volunteered during the 2-year data collection were interviewed.…”

Relational Dialectics Theory

“…For example, Harrigan et al (2014) studied sensemaking of adult children who were conceived via sperm donation. Several scholars have examined family creation/expansion via adoption and/or foster care, including talk addressed to and by birth mothers (Baxter et al, 2012; Norwood & Baxter, 2011), talk about visible adoptions (Harrigan & Braithwaite, 2010), adoptive parental texts surrounding adoption (Baxter et al, 2014), adoptive parental narratives of foster‐initiated adoptions (Baxter et al, 2015; Suter et al, 2014), adult children's stories of adoption (Scharp, 2013), and texts relevant to the foster‐care family (Scharp & Thomas, 2020; Thomas et al, 2017; Thomas & Scharp, 2017, 2020).…”