1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«The present study [...] investigates the psychological shifts associated with placement instability from the perspective of young people who have been in placement.» (p. 230)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«The present study is part of a broader, longitudinal study of adolescent girls aged 12 to 18: the Montreal Study on Adolescent Girls in Residential Youth Centers (Lanctôt, 2011) […]. More than six years later, in 2015, we constituted a purposive sample of 15 young women from the original sample of girls […].» (p. 231)

Instruments :
Guide d’entretien semi-directif

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse de contenu

3. Résumé

«[W]hen the duration of girls’ placements was extended, this clearly led to a sense of loss of control and feelings of having been betrayed by their parents. These young women also reported having experienced feelings of uncertainty and unfairness, because their discharges had often been unpredictably postponed from their originally scheduled dates.» (p. 234) Also, «the predominant role that the sense of agency plays in the meaning that young women ascribe to placement instability. […] In the specific case of young people who have been placed in residential care, empowerment is reduced both by lack of opportunities and by loss of sense of agency. […] At the same time, the difficulty that some of the young women in this study had in developing meaningful relationships with staff may have reduced their receptiveness to emotional support from their youth-care educators. In light of the many psychological shifts that these adolescent girls experienced in connection with their unstable placement histories, this support could have been an important tool for helping them to deal with their negative thoughts and emotions.» (p. 235) «Overall, if the loss of sense of agency was experienced by all, this study demonstrates that an unstable placement pattern led to a weaker sense of agency and that the opportunities to gain it back are often limited and sometime dangerous for youth.» (p. 236)