Background Various studies have shown that siblings can be an important social resource during out-of-home care, but there is limited knowledge regarding the role of sibling relationships after leaving care. Objective Based on a study titled ‘Relevance of family in the transition from care to adulthood’, this article investigates the significance of siblings in the process of leaving care. Participants and setting The target group was 41 care leavers from various regions of Austria between the ages of 18 and 27. Methods A qualitative research design was used combining problem-centred interviews and egocentric network maps. With the help of thematic and network analyses, the significance of siblings in the context of the entire relationship network of care leavers was examined. Results The results of the study confirm that sibling relationships represent close and central family relationships. At the same time, it becomes apparent that sibling constellations are very heterogenous. Negative influences on sibling relationships arise, on the one hand, from experiences in the family of origin and, on the other hand, from the effects of out-of-home care on the sibling constellation. In some cases, the sibling relationships improve after leaving care. Conclusions Due to the high importance of siblings in the relationship network of care leavers, the role of siblings should be given higher priority in youth welfare services and in aftercare support. Moreover, a specific sibling work is required that broadens the horizons of existing approaches to family work and encourages the positive development of sibling relationships.

Young people transitioning from out-of-home care to adulthood encounter an abrupt change in status dictated by government regulations, which call their social ties into question. Despite frequently challenging or disrupted family relationships, international research shows that family becomes highly salient again during this period. This article examines how young people with out-of-home care experience negotiate the discrepancies between their lived family experiences, the socially constructed, normative expectations of family and the biographically shaped images of family that accompany them, and how they subsequently position themselves in relation to family. Drawing on 41 qualitative, biographically oriented interviews and egocentric network maps with care leavers in Austria, the study analyses processes of self-positioning towards the family of origin and alternative, self-created family configurations. Using grounded theory and qualitative network analysis, six types of family-related positionings were identified, ranging from consciously chosen and self-constructed forms of family to strong adherence to biological kinship, intensified ambivalence, a lack of familial belonging, and identity formation through “genetic thinking”. These findings highlight the enduring relevance of family references in care leavers’ transitions, particularly for social support, belonging, and identity development. They demonstrate how young people navigate the continuum between doing family on their own terms and aligning themselves with socially dominant images of family, while negotiating normative expectations, biographical ties and opportunities for self-formation.

This article examines how care leavers navigate their relationships with biological mothers and fathers. It is based on a qualitative study from Austria, which focused on social networks and family relationships of 18-to 27year-old care-experienced youth. While biological mothers and fathers do not play a central role in the relationship network of the interviewees, they can provide a sense of social belonging and take on important support functions due to scarce social resources in the process of leaving care. The results illustrate how the tension between socially established normative images of mothers and fathers and diverging family-related experiences influences relationships with fathers and mothers. This tension also shapes the practices and interventions of the child and youth welfare system.

Barriers that contribute to the educational challenges faced by many care leavers / care-experienced people have been increasingly recognised in recent research. However, the role of stigma as one such barrier in the educational progress of care leavers has received limited attention to date. This paper aims to highlight the potential role of experiences of, and responses to, stigma in shaping the educational progress of care leavers. The authors draw on data from three qualitative studies using one-to-one interviews in Austria, Ireland, and Switzerland, each examining aspects of the educational experiences of care leavers aged 18-39. The cross-national (multi-country) nature of this paper allows the perspectives of care leavers living in diverse contexts and systems to be included. Findings suggest that many participants across the three countries experience stigmatisation in different contexts along their educational pathways. There is also evidence of their responding to this stigmatisation with a range of strategies by which they sought to mitigate the negative impact of stigma on their educational and wider progress. Theoretical, policy and practice implications of the cross-national analysis are explored.

BACKGROUND:Care leavers are often disadvantaged in terms of their mental health compared to the general population. The factors influencing care leavers' mental health in the third decade of their lives have so far not been studied systematically. OBJECTIVE:Based on a resource model, external contextual factors before, during and after out-of-home care are examined with regard to their positive or negative effects on mental health. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING:The sample consists of 121 care leavers, born between 1987 and 1997 and aged between 20 and 29 at the time of the paper-and-pencil survey. The participants had been in out-of-home care for at least two years and left care at the age of 16 or later. METHODS:Multiple hierarchical regression analysis with pairwise deletion and bootstrapping was used to identify predictors of mental health. The final model explains 27 % of the variance in the dependent variable "mental health" and is significant. RESULTS:Emotional abuse by parents (β = -0.187; p = 0.027) before out-of-home care is negatively associated, but a longer length of stay (β = 0.202; p = 0.023) and support from friends (β = 0.227; p = 0.015) during out-of-home care, as well as an independent economic status (β = 0.326; p < 0.001) and a romantic relationship (β = 0.160; p = 0.044) after the transition show positive correlations with mental health. CONCLUSIONS:The results point to the need for support in building social relationships and sufficient psychosocial support during and after out-of-home care.

Social Work in Austria can be described as an action and profession based science dealing with the dif- ferent forms of social support that help people maintain agency in difficult circumstances and situations in life. At the same time, the field sees itself as a practical form of social policy that undertakes a critical examination of how social problems and risks of exclusion are generated within society. Finally, Social Work pursues its own educational goal based on opportunities for personal realisation and participation. Historically, Social Work in Austria developed along two separate paths, firstly as Sozialarbeit (social work in a narrow sense), administrative practice that is rooted in occupations around youth welfare and healthcare, and secondly as Sozialpädagogik (Social Pedagogy), which arose from social education work in out-of-home care for children and young people. Since the 1970s, the number of tasks and approaches in this context has proliferated, increasingly causing social work and Social Pedagogy to overlap and converge. In recent years, there have been signs of growing professionality and of the field slowly becoming established as an academic discipline. Simultaneously, approaches are becoming more important that are participatory or relate to social spaces and civil society.

Care leavers are disadvantaged in many countries and in many ways in terms of their participation in society. Compared to the population as a whole, they have a lower level of education and are more often unemployed or precariously employed and less well paid. They are more likely to experience poverty and poor health, and their life satisfaction is lower. Previous research has focused primarily on the “leaving care” phase and related challenges in the transition to independent living. This paper is the first to analyze the socio-economic status and living situation of care leavers between the ages of 20–29 in Austria. In a questionnaire survey of 26 institutions and all federal states, 122 care leavers born between 1987 and 1997 were interviewed about their current life situation. By using standardized scales and items, data were collected that could be compared with the Austrian sample from the EU-SILC survey. The results reveal considerable disadvantages in all areas investigated. Female care leavers suffer greater disadvantages in terms of their financial status, health and satisfaction with the housing situation, male care leavers in terms of the subjects in which they are educated, unemployment and satisfaction with their personal relationships. The 25–29-year-old care leavers suffer fewer, less severe disadvantages, but still lag behind the comparison group in most areas. Overall, the results underline the need for educational and social policy interventions.

Drawing on the term "social topographies", this contribution advocates systematically taking into account socio-spatial circumstances and forms of embeddedness when analysing biographical educational processes. A distinction is made between individuals' position in social spaces which feature social inequalities and their constitution of belongings to specific, partial social spaces. Considerations from education theory are made concrete in the shape of an empirical study investigating the educational pathways taken by young adults with experience of the child and youth care system. A childhood spent in residential institutions is characterised by socio-spatial discontinuities, while the family the primary place of education - is experienced as precarious. An approach based on social topographies thus appears especially relevant for this group.

Die gesellschaftliche Diskussion um Bildung hat sich in den letzten Jahren intensiviert. Wissen und Bildung gelten in Gesellschaften wie Deutschland oder Österreich als zentrale gesellschaftliche Ressourcen und als Garanten des gesellschaftlichen und ökonomischen Erfolgs. Der Blick auf die Verwertbarkeit von Bildung als "Standortfaktor" und das gesellschaftliche Selbstverständnis als "Wissensgesellschaft" (vgl. Höhne 2004) hat dazu geführt, dass auch in außerschulischen Institutionen wie der Kinder- und Jugendarbeit zunehmend "Bildungsrelevantes" entdeckt wird.

What role do rituals play in the genesis of the social dimension in people’s lives in contemporary society? Answering this question is the aim of the twelve-year Berlin Study on Rituals (Berliner Ritualstudie). The research focuses on the importance and meaning of rituals for the learning and educational processes of children and adolescents, drawing on rituals from four areas of socialization: family, school, children’s and youth culture, and the media. Empirically, the study’s main focus is on the children of an inner-city elementary school and their families, where the research is confronted with the usual conditions prevalent at such inner-city schools: about 300 pupils from 25 different ethnic communities.

In dem Beitrag wird mit Hilfe des Begriffs der ‚sozialen Topographien‘ dafür plädiert, die sozialräumlichen Zusammenhänge und Einbettungen bei der Analyse von biographischen Bildungsprozessen systematisch zu berücksichtigen. Dabei wird zwischen der Auseinandersetzung mit der Positionierung im gesellschaftlichen Raum sozialer Ungleichheiten und der Konstitution von Zugehörigkeiten zu spezifischen, partiellen Sozialräumen unterschieden. Die bildungstheoretischen Überlegungen werden mit Hilfe einer empirischen Studie konkretisiert, in der Bildungswege von jungen Erwachsenen mit Kinder- und Jugendhilfeerfahrung untersucht wurden. Das Aufwachsen in stationären Betreuungseinrichtungen ist von sozialräumlichen Diskontinuitäten geprägt, während der primäre Bildungsort ‚Familie‘ als prekär erlebt wird. Eine sozialtopographische Perspektive erscheint für diese Gruppe daher in besonderer Weise relevant.

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