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Using and ignoring evidence: The case of Australian child support reform

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-18, 07:02 authored by Cook, K, Natalier, K
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.

History

Publication title

Australian Review of Public Affairs

Pagination

1-17

ISSN

1832-1526

Department/School

School of Social Sciences

Publisher

The University of Sydney

Place of publication

Australia

Rights statement

Copyright 2014 The University of Sydney

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Other health not elsewhere classified

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