This paper explores the process of transition into adulthood from the foster care system in Poland in the context of the legal and institutional regulations shaping early adulthood. Despite the paradigm shift and the rule of moving away from institutional forms of foster care towards a diverse range of family based forms of care, the transition to adulthood from foster care is still highly institutionalised in Poland. The paper explains how the state, through its legal and institutional means, shapes biographies of care leavers towards the form of adulthood understood as the stage of reaching economic autonomy and starting a family. The paper draws on original qualitative research conducted with care leavers in Poland which was part of the Public policies for completed adulthood. The case of Poland project, which was conducted in 2015–2020 and funded by the Polish National Science Centre (NCN). The results show that the transition from care to adulthood is both accelerated and compressed and is perceived as rapid and chaotic by care leavers, and that the abrupt withdrawal of support makes the Polish care system less effective.

Population Review

Volume 60, Number 2, 2021

Type: Article, pp. 118-141

The Transition from Foster Care to Adulthood in Poland

Authors: Jolanta Grotowska-Leder and Iwona Kudlińska-Chróścicka
Affiliations: The Committee of the Demographic Sciences, Polish Academy of Science, Poland, Department of Sociology, Institute of Sociological Sciences and Pedagogy, Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW), Poland (Grotowska-Leder); Department of Applied Sociology and Social Work, Faculty of Economics and Sociology, University of Lodz, Poland (Kudlińska-Chróścicka)
Corresponding author/address: Jolanta Grotowska-Leder, Department of Sociology, Institute of Sociological Sciences and Pedagogy, Warsaw University of Life Sciences (SGGW), Poland;        email: [email protected].pl

Abstract

This paper explores the process of transition into adulthood from the foster care system in Poland in the context of the legal and institutional regulations shaping early adulthood. Despite the paradigm shift and the rule of moving away from institutional forms of foster care towards a diverse range of family based forms of care, the transition to adulthood from foster care is still highly institutionalised in Poland. The paper explains how the state, through its legal and institutional means, shapes biographies of care leavers towards the form of adulthood understood as the stage of reaching economic autonomy and starting a family. The paper draws on original qualitative research conducted with care leavers in Poland which was part of the Public policies for completed adulthood. The case of Poland project, which was conducted in 2015-2020 and funded by the Polish National Science Centre (NCN). The results show that the transition from care to adulthood is both accelerated and compressed and is perceived as rapid and chaotic by care leavers, and that the abrupt withdrawal of support makes the Polish care system less effective.

Keywords

Transition to adulthood, foster care, care leavers, Poland

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