"Resilience can look really messy:" an exploration of resilience among former foster youth
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Abstract
The present study explores the process of resilience for FFY. This exploration began with understanding how FFY define resilience, followed by how they engage in communicative processes to enact resilience. Using the phronetic iterative approach, the communication theory of resilience (CTR) (Buzzanell, 2010) was used to analyze data from qualitative interviews with FFY (n=14). Qualitative data analysis revealed that FFY defined resilience as survival (with subthemes of weathering the storm and rising again like the phoenix), as elastic, and as burdensome. Data analysis also revealed that FFY enact resilience by crafting normalcy (with subthemes of material possessions and maintaining family identity), communication networks (with subthemes of maintaining communication networks and creating new communication networks), foregrounding productive action while backgrounding negative feelings, and affirming identity anchors (with sub-themes of faith as an identity anchor and family heritage as an identity anchor). These findings advance resilience theorizing and foster care research by illuminating resilience processes used by FFY. Because of their unique experiences of early childhood trauma and the adverse outcomes associated with trauma, researchers must understand how to approach this research with a trauma-informed lens. This study paves the way for future research to continue to explore what resilience looks like among vulnerable populations.