Me & my future : A qualitative study on how young people in residential care homes think about themselves and their future.

Studies have shown that young people in residential care homes tend to be low achievers in school and are at high risk of entering adulthood with a low level of education. This group has also shown tendency to adverse psychosocial outcomes. The aim with this study is to reach an understanding of how teenagers and young adults view themselves and their future, what ambitions they have in life and how they see their opportunities to realize their goals. The study is based on a qualitative method and was conducted with semi structured personal interviews with five youngsters 15-21 years old in two different residential care homes. The theoretical viewpoints have been based on E.H Erikson’s theory about identity as well as the theory about resilience.The result of this study indicates that the persons we have interviewed have expressed difficulties in describing themselves. They also express a wish to finish their primary school with complete grades. All of them described what professions they would like to work with. It also came clear that they do not like to plan too far ahead, instead they take one day at a time.The young people that we interviewed expressed a positive view about their future, most of them knew what they want in life, but they find it difficult to describe the way to get there