Care Leavers' Perceived Well-Being: Findings From a Co-constructed Survey in Italy

Abstract

It is now well established that young people who, for different reasons, grow up in care face particular challenges when they leave the care system. Many policies have been enacted to support them, but not enough is known about their subjective views on their situation and what their idea of well-being is and their aspirations in its regard. The article presents the results of a survey which involved 454 Italian care leavers aged 16–25 years old. The study was constructed with them, with the aim of understanding their condition, their opinion about the child protection system (CPS) and their subjective perception of well-being regarding different life dimensions. Findings are useful to highlight factors associated with subjective well-being (SWB), such as economic precarity, age and gender. Children participation seems to make a difference in the largest number of life domains, including the relationship with the birth family. The research underscored the overall value of participation for care leavers: holding together the many aspects that support SWB can indeed facilitate the construction of contextualized knowledge, thus providing useful and solidly grounded instruments with which to implement policies and practices.