“What is it like living in residential care: from young people’s perspective” using a photo-elicitation method

Introduction: There are over 80,000 children living in care with 15% of these children living in residential care. The research highlights that these children have worst outcomes in educational achievement, mental and physical health when compared to other care environments. However, there is limited research to understand why and what it is like from the young people’s perspective about what it is like living in this environment. This study aimed to explore the experiences of children in residential care, and their voices were at the centre of this research.
Method: A creative qualitative methodology was used to explore the topic. Eight young people living in residential homes across Leeds were asked to take pictures in response to the question of “what is it like living in residential care?” The images were used to facilitate a discussion as part of the semi-structured interview, which was analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).
Results: The interviews allowed for the development of Personal experiential themes (PETs) and Group Experiential Themes (GETs) to represent individual and group experiences. One core theme was developed “Navigating adolescent development: experiencing the extremes of residential care” with four additional GETs “Making sense of who I am: through objects and activities”, “Their reality of living in residential care: experiencing chaos”, “(Not) One big happy family” and “The system we can’t see”.
Discussion: This study provided participants a rare opportunity for their voices to be heard about their experience of this unique environment. The outcomes highlight the difficulty of navigating adolescent development in this space and how their experience is interwoven into this environment. The participants expressed the importance of the space both looking and being used like a home, as well as the difficulty but value in creating meaningful and safe connections with others.