Relatedness: how do care leavers reflect on their relationships as a supporting factor in the process of leaving care?

This volume contains three research chapters. The first chapter describes a systematic review of qualitative empirical papers in which innovative qualitative methods were used to study various aspects of interpersonal relationships. The review offers an original taxonomy of such methods, grouped as: affording, scaffolding, pre-reflective, in vivo and performative research methods. The use of these methods contributes to three relational perspectives in the study: the self in relationship, the other in relationship, and the relationship itself. In the second chapter, an empirical study is presented, in which care leavers’ experiences of relationships in preparation for leaving care, during the process of leaving care and during the transition to university are explored. Seven young people produced visual representations of their relationships, which were followed by in-depth discussions. Using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) framework, the findings highlighted the roles played by significant others during the transition process. The third chapter, a public dissemination document, accessibly summarises the two papers