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This paper explores the cultural and biographical specificity of home by examining the connections between young people’s experiences of out-of-home care and their definitions of home. The paper draws on 77 in-depth interviews with young people who had lived away from their families in the Australian out-of-home care system. The paper applies a psycho-social conceptualisation of ‘home’ to argue that home was a crucial symbol through which these young people imagined a less challenging future and claimed identities of ‘being normal’. The majority remembered their time in out-of-home care as a time of instability and insecurity in terms of both housing and relationships; they did not feel at home in these contexts. These histories informed young people’s experiences and imagining of home and their sense of identity within and after out-of-home care, as they defined home as fundamentally different from out-of-home care. Their definitions incorporated shelter, emotional well-being, control, routine, caring relationships and stability.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	Home, out-of-home care, foster care, placement instability, ontological security
Research Division:	Studies in Human Society
Research Group:	Sociology
Research Field:	Sociology not elsewhere classified
Objective Division:	Health
Objective Group:	Other Health
Objective Field:	Health not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:	Natalier, K (Dr Kristin Natalier)
ID Code:	98152
Year Published:	2014
Deposited By:	Social Sciences
Deposited On:	2015-02-03
Last Modified:	2015-05-11
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