Beyond the Leaving Threshold: Care Staying, Disability, and Constrained Transitions to Adulthood in China

Yin, Shian (2026) Beyond the Leaving Threshold: Care Staying, Disability, and Constrained Transitions to Adulthood in China. Health & Social Care in the Community, 2026 (1). ISSN 0966-0410

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Abstract

Research on transitions from care to adulthood has focused primarily on care leavers, with less attention to young people who remain in care beyond the formal leaving threshold. This article examines three care‐experienced young adults in China who were aged over 18, no longer in formal education, and still living in institutional care. Drawing on a narrative‐informed, idiographic qualitative design nested within a wider dataset, it uses in‐depth interviews conducted in Mandarin in 2021 and analyzes them through reflexive thematic analysis informed by a disability‐informed structural lens. The findings suggest that continued residence in care is better understood as an ambivalent and uneven transition position rather than as simple reluctance to leave. The analysis identifies three interrelated themes: staying in care as both security and constraint; impairment, health, and uneven possibilities for leaving; and stigma, low expectations, and constrained adult futures. Across the three cases, the institution provided forms of support that were difficult to replace elsewhere, including housing, routine, proximate care, and, in some cases, work, while also narrowing practical and imagined pathways out of care. The article offers empirical insight into an underexplored group and makes a conceptual contribution to understanding care staying in the Chinese context.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number:	10.1155/hsc/1101821
Dates:	Date Event 9 April 2026 Accepted 8 May 2026 Published Online
Uncontrolled Keywords:	are staying, care-experienced young adults, disability, extended care, institutional care, stigma
Subjects:	CAH15 - social sciences > CAH15-04 - health and social care > CAH15-04-01 - social work
Divisions:	Life and Health Sciences > Health and Social Care Professions > Social Care
Depositing User:	Gemma Tonks
Date Deposited:	18 May 2026 10:45
Last Modified:	18 May 2026 10:45
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/17056

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