Browsing by Author "Alakomi, Ella"

The aim of this study was to provide more understanding and information about school-ing and school support about young people who have experienced out-of-home place-ment. Previous studies have shown that children in foster care face more challenges in school. The aim was to identify, analyse and describe the challenges in school and schooling outcomes of young people who have experienced foster care. In terms of support at school, factors related to effective support and issues where children per-ceived a lack of support where highlighted. The data for the study consisted of six young people who have experienced placement at some point in their lives and who spoke about their experiences in thematic inter-views. The interviewees were reached through the Nuorten turvasatama and the inter-views were conducted anonymously by using the Discord messaging application. The interview data was produced in November 2022. The study is qualitative, and the study design is phenomenographic. The analysis of the data was carried out using a data-driven content analysis. The results of the study implicated that mental health challenges were strongly present and hampered the school performance of youth who have experienced foster care. Mental health challenges impacted young people´s school careers from primary school onwards, with an increase in challenges in secondary school. The results of the study showed that young people had limited access to school-based help for mental challeng-es. Another factor that strongly emerged in the data as a barrier to schooling was school bullying. Bullying was linked to school satisfaction and in addition to school and group changes contributed to poor school adherence. Many of the problem areas identi-fied in the study could be addressed by modifying the school environment to facilitate school attachment. In addition, recourses are needed to ensure that there is time for genuine encounter and for identifying and responding to support needs.