EXPERIENCE OF GROWING UP IN INSTITUTIONAL FOSTER CARE – RESEARCH REPORT

Abstract

The article is devoted to the functioning of adolescent pupils of the “House of Return” in Białystok. Its aim is to show the experience of growing up in an orphanage from the pupils’ perspective. The first part of the text presents theoretical assumptions regarding the experience of growing up, organization of foster care in Poland, growing up in its institutional form and the process of deinstitutionalization. The second part of the article presents methodological assumptions of the research and the results regarding growing up in institutional foster care. Qualitative research using the method of individual cases was carried out in May 2021 with the charges of the “House of Return” in Białystok. The concept of qualitative data analysis by Matthew B. Miles and A. Michael Huberman was used to analyze the empirical material. In the light of the research, the charges function properly in the care and education centre for children and young people, the experience of growing up in an orphanage is not a trauma for them, but they have difficulties with establishing close relationships, they lack a significant adult, and are also not very self-reliant.