Becoming independent is a process involving diverse developmental tasks, upheavals and challenges. Aside from everyday practical capabilities, personal resources, like a fundamental feeling of confidence and trust in life and one’s own possibilities are required.
In the SOS Longitudinal Study, we also examine what, exactly, this constitutes and how it can be strengthened among young people during and after home care. The goal of alternative care in the youth welfare system is to enable young persons who must become independent considerably earlier than their peers and generally without familial support to live according to their own agendas.
To make this possible, a comprehensive set of aids and measures that provide both space and time for personality development in an institutional setting, as well as professional and trusting attendance during the sensitive phase of transition from out of home care to adulthood are required.