Acolhimento institucional

: a perspetiva dos jovens

Abstract

The aim of this study is to be acquainted with the different perspectives experienced by young people, who live in residential care homes, concerning the situation that brought them there and their outlook towards the future. The significance of this project resides in the great need to support this type of institutions, so they can provide their best services to their users in order to enhance their biopsychosocial development. Therefore, 10 self-report questionnaires and 1 semi-structured interview were taken to young people, 5 of which were considered successful and the other 5 within a failure path. We tried to identify young people’s self-perceptions and institution related. According to the obtained results, it appears that family separation followed by the integration process in a host institution has a negative impact in these people, as they associate feelings like anger and discomfort. However, these feelings start to decrease by the time young people start to get used to the institution, modifying their behavior and feeling better with their current living conditions. Participants with different backgrounds, success and failure, also have similar perspectives concerning their situation in the institution and similar life paths. However, they differ from each other about the way they perceive theirselves in their life project construction.

Date of Award	29 Apr 2016
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Armanda Paula da Cunha Gonçalves (Supervisor)