"The past colliding with the present": a grounded theory of foster care identity development

Abstract

Through their contributions to thought pieces, advocacy activities, and presentations, several individuals with experience in foster care have affirmed the presence of a foster care identity that persists into adulthood with continued significance after exiting foster care and after graduating college. Likewise, several studies have contributed findings related to a foster care identity in the context of foster care or college, while others have alluded to the continued presence of a foster care identity after college graduation. Yet, there is a paucity of research that has considered how college graduates with experience in foster care (CGEFC) make meaning of developing a foster care identity over time. The purpose of this constructivist grounded theory study was to understand the meaning making process of developing a foster care identity for college graduates who were formerly in foster care and to identify the critical influences on the meaning making process. Data were collected through a series of three semi-structured interviews with nine participants who all experienced foster care on or after their 13th birthday, had graduated with a bachelor's degree, and identified as having a foster care identity. The extant literature and a conceptual framework guided the initial directions of the study and provided the sensitizing concepts that I drew on and departed from as I co-construct the interviews with the participants, analyzed the data, and engaged in theoretical sampling. The result of this study was an emerging theoretical perspective on the meaning making process of developing a foster care identity grounded in the experiences of the participants. The emerging theory includes five components that can be understood as sub-processes of the meaning making process of developing a foster care identity including: (a) experiencing disrupted developmental environments, (b) seeking a sense of self, (c) becoming aware of a foster care identity, (d) doing the healing work, and (e) finding meaning in experiences. Each component is explained by three dimensions that describe and characterize how the component comprises part of the meaning making process of developing a foster care identity. The components and dimensions are critically influenced by three contextual factors: (a) micro-macro level perceptions of others, (b) variations in family privilege, and (c) time. The emerging theory is intended to be dynamic in that it is not a stage-based ordinal model of identity development, rather it represents how participants uniquely made meaning of developing a foster care identity with increasing complexity over time. The emerging theory is nuanced as participants' meaning making process of developing a foster care identity differed as some individuals experienced some but not all the components or dimensions of the theory, participants experienced the components or dimensions in various orders, many participants experienced some of the components and dimensions repeatedly, and frequently the experiences in one component and dimension had impact on the other components and dimensions. The findings of this study inform recommendations for how the child welfare system and higher education institutions can support youth and students with experience in foster care through the process of developing a positive sense of self, and more specifically support their development of a foster care identity in a positive and affirming manner. Further, this study affirms a foster care identity is a construct worthy of exploring in future studies with further consideration of a foster care identity at the intersection of other personal and social identities and with attention to additional contexts.