Growing up overnight: exploration of transition for young girls in the preparation of leaving care （一夜長大：探索安置少女準備離院的過渡期）

According to Taiwan Acts concerning with well-being of children, the group of look after system is heterogeneous. Those who had been maltreated and abused in any kinds of forms are particularly referred in this paper. In 2017 there are 124 long-term residential child care and 1,477 foster families; 4,769 children has been in placed in the look after system, which indicates a rate of 11.4 per 10,000 children are in care. Also, there are 1,747 care leavers ; among them 60% are male and the rest are female. A child or young people into care, the day to day care are divided into a number of activities performed by different groups, care workers, social workers and therapists included. Due to The Protection of Children and Youths Welfare and Rights Act in Taiwan, at the age of 18 young people shall exit the care system into the independent living revealing the fast-tracked, fractured and compressed transition to adulthood. Moreover, young people after care do not have safety nets as their peers do. However, the transition does not comes with timing or incidents but a psychological process people go through to cope with major changes in their life. Young people, as a result have limited choices and further exploration of psychological process. Given that the impact of transition, the daily life of young people in care are emphasized to the autonomy development.

This research, particularly targeting on young girls in care between the age of 16 to 18 with three-year placement experiences, explores their self-discovery psychological pathway through care to the entry of leaving care in terms of three periods of transitions proposed by Bridge(2009) . Young girls, being subjectivity interpret meanings of care such as daily routine life, summer camp and backpacking, and independent living project as reflection to life course of youthhood to emerging adulthood. This study enriches voices of young girl in the transition of care system either in practice or academic and also open up preliminary stage for 16 to 25 young female cohort research.