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Coward, Sinclair (2015) The Emotional Wellbeing of Black and Dual Heritage Looked After Young People. Doctoral thesis, London Metropolitan University.
The purpose of this study is to explore how the experience of being looked after impacts on the emotional wellbeing of black and dual heritage young people. Looked after children and young people have been identified as a specific group whose views need to contribute to the development of policy (DfES, 2007). However, studies gaining the views of black and dual heritage looked after young people are limited, thus their needs remain under researched and largely unknown.
Guided by the philosophical assumptions and methodological approach of Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis a semi-structured face-to-face interview was conducted with ten (n-10) care experienced black and dual heritage young people. Five (n-5) black and dual heritage social workers who were experienced in working with this demographic were also interviewed. Three superordinate themes were identified from the interpretive analysis: 1) Emotional Unavailability, 2) Ethnicity, and 3) Surviving School. A number of subordinate themes were also identified under each theme.
The findings suggest that black and dual heritage looked after young people have additional and different needs from the general looked after population. The young people emphasised a lack of authentically warm relationships with their foster carers and to a lesser extent with their social workers. The findings raise challenging issues for teachers who were experienced by the young people as being insensitive and judgmental. An underpinning concern was the lack of recognition from foster carers of their identities as black and dual heritage young people.
In attempting to move towards service improvement the data analysis lead to a number of recommendations for key professionals, local authorities and future research. Underpinning these recommendations is an emphasis on the importance of listening to the voices of this vulnerable group.
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