Care leavers and social capital: understanding and negotiating racial and ethnic identity

Young people leaving state care are recognized to be one of the most marginalized groups in society. In comparison to their counterparts living in their own family and community context, care leavers experience enormous adversity and upheaval. A combination of poor pre-care, in-care and post-care experiences serves to disadvantage this group of young people in many important ways. Moreover, research evidence documents the complexity of identity issues and concerns for minority ethnic children and young people who are separated from their birth families and are being brought up in public care. By drawing upon a recent and wider empirical study into care leavers in England, this paper explores the sociological concept of social capital and the ways in which this may contribute to young people's understanding and negotiation of their own racial and ethnic identity.