Understanding Bullying Experiences Among Care Leavers: A Qualitative Pilot Study

The aim of this project is to understand the bullying experiences of young people who grew up in foster care, focusing on bullying at school, online, and between siblings (biological or foster). This will involve conducting qualitative semi-structured interviews with 12-15 foster care leavers (20 participants if saturation is not reached). Reflexive thematic analysis will allow for exploration of the following research questions:
RQ1: What forms of bullying do care leavers experience, and how prevalent are these?
RQ2: What care-specific factors contribute to bullying vulnerability?
RQ3: How are bullying experiences connected across contexts for foster children (e.g., at school and between siblings)?
RQ4: What barriers prevent care leavers from disclosing bullying or seeking support, and what systemic factors enable or constrain adult responses?
RQ5: What protective factors and coping strategies help care leavers manage or avoid bullying?
Current research on this topic is in its infancy, and the experiences and voices of those in foster care are largely ignored in the literature; children in foster care represent 73.4% of all looked-after children (LAC; Ofsted, 2021), yet the research currently focuses more on the experiences of those in residential care homes (Brett, 2024).