Psychosocial well-being in adulthood in response to systemic barriers in kinship care as experienced during adolescence

Abstract

This study reports on the experiences of Black adults who were raised in kinship care during adolescence and its influences on their psychosocial well-being in adulthood. An exploratory, descriptive, instrumental, multiplecase study approach was followed to facilitate retrospective investigation. Semi-structured, individual interviews were conducted to construct data. The sample comprised of 13 Black adults between the ages of 18 and 42 years. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The themes highlighted the systemic challenges characteristic of the South African context. These include poverty, material deprivation, and its influence on the kinship caregiver’s physical and emotional accessibility. The findings suggest that the implications of the systemic challenges reverberate as forms of structural violence. Many of the participants defend against this, with conscious efforts to emphasize on the constructive outcomes of their experiences. Future research should include multiple case and quantitative studies as well as more longitudinal research.