Understanding interdependence in early adulthoods: Learning from care experienced young people who participated in Lifelong Links

哲学家朱迪思·巴特勒写道：只有当自由的行使得到足够的支持时，自由才能被行使。这一观点支撑了这一令人兴奋的博士机会的重点。我们生活在这样一个时代，年轻人在过渡到成年早期的过程中面临着越来越多的挑战和不确定性，涉及教育、住房和就业等领域。对于年轻人来说，如果他们有能力的话，依靠家庭在情感、实际和经济上的支持已经变得越来越普遍。与此同时，当家庭生活困难时，年轻人往往在提供关怀和支持方面发挥关键作用。当代社会的这些模式对接受护理的年轻人具有特别尖锐的影响，他们在离开护理机构后往往面临突然和加速的向独立的过渡。迫切需要更好地了解相互依存关系和对有护理经验的年轻人的支持，以及随着时间的推移，正式和非正式支持来源在日常生活中相互交织的方式。这是博士学位的重点，它采用混合方法研究年轻人生活中的相互支持、关怀和联系。这个项目创造了一个独特的机会，可以与国家组织家庭权利组织合作，在提供津贴的同时，提供全额资助的博士学位，并提供相关的有偿工作经验。这项计划中的研究建立在一项名为终身联系的计划的基础上，该计划由家庭权利组织制定，目的是确保被照顾的儿童有一个积极的支持网络。项目目的和目的这项研究的总体目标是了解有护理经验的年轻人在成年早期的生活中相互依赖的本质。该项目将采用混合方法方法。最终的研究设计将由成功的候选人与他们在苏塞克斯和家庭权利组织的主管合作来完善和开发，但这项工作将解决三个核心目标：1.通过进行政策和文献审查，为研究建立政策背景和建立理论和概念框架；2.通过分析一个终身联系领域内的地方当局数据，定量记录与终身联系一起工作的年轻人的路径；以及3.通过对参与终身联系的年轻人样本进行深入访谈，阐明对相互依赖和关系自我的理解。

'Freedom can only be exercised if there is enough support for the exercise of freedom', wrote the philosopher Judith Butler - an idea that underpins the focus of this exciting PhD opportunity. We live in a period when young people face increasing challenges and uncertainties in their transitions into early adulthoods, spanning areas including education, housing and employment. It has become more common for young adults to rely on family for emotional, practical and financial support, if they are able to do so. At the same time, when families are living in difficult circumstances, young people often play a key role in providing care and support. These patterns in contemporary society have particularly sharp implications for young people who have been in care, who often face abrupt and accelerated transitions into independence after leaving care. There is an urgent need to build better understandings of interdependencies and support for young adults with care experience, and of the ways in which formal and informal sources of support intersect in everyday lives over time. This is the focus of the PhD, which takes a mixed methods approach to studying mutual support, care and connections in young adult lives. This project creates a unique opportunity to conduct a fully-funded PhD, with linked paid work experience in addition to the stipend, in collaboration with the national organisation Family Rights Group. The planned research builds on a programme called Lifelong Links, which was developed by Family Rights Group with the aim of ensuring that children in care have a positive support network. Project aims and objectivesThe over-arching aim of the research is to understand the nature of interdependency in the lives of care experienced young people as they navigate early adulthoods. The project will employ a mixed methods approach. The final research design will be refined and developed by successful candidate, working with their supervisors at Sussex and Family Rights Group, but the work will address three core objectives: 1. Establishing the policy context and building a theoretical and conceptual framework for the research, by conducting a policy and literature review; 2. Documenting quantitively the pathways of young adults who have worked with Lifelong Links, through analysis of local authority data within one Lifelong Links area; and,3. Illuminating understandings of interdependency and relational selves, by conducting in-depth interviews with a sample of young adults who participated in Lifelong Links.