From heritage to postmodern grounded theorizing: Forty years of grounded theory

First, a little background to contextualize my research: Today, through expanding media coverage, most people are at least minimally aware of the plight of children and adolescents in foster care. Here are some of the major trends. Currently, over a half a million children in the United States live in foster care, with 124,000 of them living in my home state of California (Adoption & Foster Care Analysis & Reporting System (AFCARS), 2007). They are placed in foster care for a variety of reasons – mainly child abuse, neglect, and parental substance abuse (American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 2005; Simms, Dubowitz, & Szilagyi, 2000). Nearly half these children are adolescents (AFCARS, 2007); most have been in care for over 2 years, with many spending the duration of childhood in foster care (AFCARS, 2007). And most experience multiple placement transitions which results in numerous caregivers, school changes, and loss of a variety of relationships (Harden, 2004; US General Accounting Office, 1999). Further, there is an overrepresentation of minority children in foster care, especially African Americans (Chibnall et al., 2003).