The purpose of the bachelor’s thesis is to present the experiences of young people in the time of termination of foster care and their coping with the transition to an independent life. In the theoretical part, a definition of the family is presented. I write about parent families as of families with numerous challenges and about foster families as a form of social parenting. I define foster care and present the characteristics of the life of youth in today’s world. In the empirical part of the thesis, experiences of eight young people are presented. Their foster care was terminated in the period of the recent ten years and they became independent. Foster care of the persons included in the sample was terminated in the legally allowed period – no later than at the age of 26 years. The reasons for the termination of the foster care were various, e.g. completion of schooling, adoption, pregnancy, regular employment, and being ready for an independent life. When preparing for the termination of foster care, foster parents played an important role. They were preparing their foster children to the departure from the foster family by means of conversation and were helping them in their independent lives.
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