TY - JOUR
T1 - 'Sometimes I feel 60, sometimes I feel 13'
T2 - perceptions of age among vulnerable young people in Denmark
AU - Mølholt, Anne-Kirstine
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - This paper examines perceptions of subjective age identity presented in interviews with eight young people who had been in out-of-home care during their upbringing. Research shows that care-leavers often experience a variety of vulnerabilities and challenges in comparison to their same-aged peers. Additionally, they often do not organise their lives according to the same educational, professional, and relational structures as other young people. In their everyday lives, care-leavers are nonetheless confronted with expectations that assume they have a normal biographical life course, meaning a life that progresses from childhood to adulthood via a relatively stable and predictable pattern. Consequently, they evaluate themselves using socially defined roles connected to formal and informal age structuring. The findings emphasise perceptions of multiple subjective ages at the same time no matter the context, which seems to differ the perceptions of the participants from that of their same-aged peers. Additionally, the findings indicate that perceptions of subjective age and life course developments are flexible and can change in ways that do not follow a normal biographical life course, but despite this flexibility also can consist of experiences of being out of sync with same-aged peers.
AB - This paper examines perceptions of subjective age identity presented in interviews with eight young people who had been in out-of-home care during their upbringing. Research shows that care-leavers often experience a variety of vulnerabilities and challenges in comparison to their same-aged peers. Additionally, they often do not organise their lives according to the same educational, professional, and relational structures as other young people. In their everyday lives, care-leavers are nonetheless confronted with expectations that assume they have a normal biographical life course, meaning a life that progresses from childhood to adulthood via a relatively stable and predictable pattern. Consequently, they evaluate themselves using socially defined roles connected to formal and informal age structuring. The findings emphasise perceptions of multiple subjective ages at the same time no matter the context, which seems to differ the perceptions of the participants from that of their same-aged peers. Additionally, the findings indicate that perceptions of subjective age and life course developments are flexible and can change in ways that do not follow a normal biographical life course, but despite this flexibility also can consist of experiences of being out of sync with same-aged peers.
KW - Life course theory
KW - care-leavers
KW - narrative interviews
KW - sociology of age
KW - subjective age identity
KW - vulnerable youth
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85074871360&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13676261.2019.1687861
DO - 10.1080/13676261.2019.1687861
M3 - Journal article
SN - 1367-6261
VL - 24
SP - 62
EP - 76
JO - Journal of Youth Studies
JF - Journal of Youth Studies
IS - 1
ER -