Perception of Family in Adolescents and Young Adults in Substitute Care

Abstract

Abstract The present paper primarily focuses on the perception of the concept of family in adolescents and young adults in substitute care and its perceived values. The main aim is to describe the theoretical framework and the basis for understanding how a child in substitute care and a child growing up in the biological family perceive the family. The authors carried out a research project on the given subject, whereas, its aim was to examine the perceptual and value apparatus of a child growing up in substitute care in relation to the family construct. The collection of qualitative data was done by a semi-structured interview and adolescents´ responses were digitally recorded and transcribed. As far as examination of the close family members´ constellation, the semi-projective method – Drawing The Family Tree Test was used, whereas, it also provides information about family-related anxiety. It seems that the primary attachment figures really appear in the perception of the closest people, or in the perception of the family (not just biological) in adolescents in substitute care. Their attachment figures are often the staff of the institution in which they grow up, and parents, or biological relatives in their perception are absent. On the contrary, siblings with a similar fate belong to the close relation framework of the participants.