| Abstract [eng] |
The focus of this research is to find out how the former children’s homes’ educatees define their experience of living in the fostering institutions. The paper examines the theoretical level of formation of the personality’s social and psychological characteristics, self-assessment peculiarities, psychological peculiarities in children from dysfunctional families, tendencies of the personality structure changes in the care institution environment, and peculiarities of educatees’ preparation for the independent life in Lithuania. The subject of the empirical research is the experience of life at the children’s homes and its appraisal. The focus of the research is to examine the former children’s homes educatees’ experience of living in the fostering institutions and their subjective evaluation of such experience. The research objectives were as follows: to examine the experience of young people’s life at children’s homes, the influence of experience upon the self-evaluation of the former children’s homes educatees, and subjective evaluation of the children’s homes educatees’ preparation for the independent living. Four former children’s homes’ educatees, who already are adults and live independently (for 3 - 5 years) participated in the research. Two of the subjects lived in state (city and province) care homes, and the other two lived in the non-governmental (family type and parish) care homes. The research included one male and three females chosen by applying random selection. The in-depth analysis of the narrative biographical interviews allows clarifying at the conceptual level the causes of formation of the young people’s subjective experience perception on the basis of which the formation mechanism was established. By summarizing all the cause, it can be stated that these young people had a painful past, and the desire to dissociate from the painful experience stimulates them to seek the things, which would help them to ensure a secure future for themselves and their families. The research data analysis revealed that continuous search for support in life resulting from the loss of parental care makes the children’s homes’ educatees to seek for the parent substitute in their immediate surrounding. Children deprived of parental care expect to receive it at the children’s homes (i.e. to have conditions resembling home environment). To secure such environment it would be purposeful to create small groups of children and secure that children from one family could be in the same group. In addition, the results reveal the significance of variety of forms of entertainment and leisure at fostering institutions. The key factor to creating a successful future life of the children’s homes’ educatees is education. Therefore, providing the appropriate conditions necessary for the educational process is of crucial importance. |
