Exploring how Homeless Youth Perceive the Working Alliance between Themselves and Youth Workers: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Date
2014-03-26
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Abstract
Youth homelessness continues to be a concern across Canada. Previous research has demonstrated that the working alliance between youth who are homeless and youth workers is an important factor in breaking the cycle of homelessness. The purpose of this research was to explore the working alliance from the perspective of the youth. Individual, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine youth (ages 16 and 17) who were recruited from overnight shelters in Calgary, Alberta. Smith, Flowers, and Larkin’s (2009) Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to analyse the data collected from the interviews. From the data the Working Alliance Stage model was developed. This model consists of a pre-stage: entering and five stages: the friendly foundation, the right environment, they “got my back,” the working part of the working alliance, and the outcome. While this model was developed for youth who are homeless the generic outline may be applicable for other youth populations.
Description
Keywords
Psychology
Citation
Gilroy, J. (2014). Exploring how Homeless Youth Perceive the Working Alliance between Themselves and Youth Workers: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26087