Fundamentos y estrategias socioeducativas en la elaboración de la historia de vida en el acogimiento en familia extensa

Kindship foster care is the most common child protection measure in Spain, which finds the appropriate elaboration of life stories between its main difficulties. If this reconstruction of life story, which usually contains dramatic situations, is not well carried out, it could generate identity problems and hinder children’s adequate development. This article analyses narratives as one of the key socio-educative strategies for the elaboration of life stories, based on the concepts of failed experience, reactive imaginative experience, and mirror stage, among others. Moreover, it proposes the use of autobiographies, lifebooks and literature as meaningful tools to foster identity development and resilience in children, in order to they may know their life stories in a coherent and positive way.