The Narrative Identity of Youth in Foster Care as a Component of Readiness for Independence: A Comparative Study
Jini Roby,
Social Work
The purpose of this project is to measure and compare the narrative identity of youth in the last year of public foster care (ages 17 and 18) with their same-age counterparts who are not in foster care. Narrative identity can be defined as one's sense of self based on the personal and collective (family) stories - the two defining elements of narrative theory (V Angelisti, 2004). We hypothesize that the sense of readiness for adulthood will be highly correlated with the elements (e.g., competence, diligence) represented in the narratives they report about themselves and their biological parents. This study may provide a new application for the identity theory and changing some of the training for caseworkers, foster parents, child therapists and family court judges who oversee their cases and provide direct services toward a more positive self-identity for the youth.
