Financial Independence without Financial Security: Mixed-Methods Findings from Adults Age 30+ Who Aged-out of Group Home Care

Background and Purpose:
Financial well-being among care-experienced adults is typically assessed using objective indicators such as income, employment, and housing stability. However, life course and financial socialization perspectives suggest that subjective financial independence may better capture the lasting effects of deprivation, institutional regulation, and abrupt transitions out of care. We argue that financial independence is not simply an economic milestone or threshold, but a developmental and psychosocial process shaped by early environments and relationship transitions. This study examines when adults who aged out of group home care first felt financially independent and how they described their ongoing relationship with money in adulthood.

Methods:
This mixed-methods study drew on survey data from 41 adults aged 30 and older who had aged out of group home care. Participants were diverse in gender, sexual, and cultural identity. In addition, 16 participants completed in-depth narrative interviews about their care histories and current well-being. Interviews were conducted using a strengths-based peer interviewing approach, conducted by a lived-experience scholar. Survey analyses examined the timing of perceived financial independence and its association with income. Qualitative data were analyzed thematically and interpreted through a life course and cumulative-inequality framework.

Results:
Nearly one-third of participants (32%) reported never feeling financially independent. A further 20% reported ongoing reliance on financial support, and 19% required assistance with health or dental expenses. Importantly, income was not associated with feelings of financial independence. Qualitative findings indicated that money remained a persistent source of fear, bodily distress, and uncertainty, even among participants who later achieved stable employment or higher income. Participants described panic around spending, compulsive or reactive spending, limited future orientation, and ongoing difficulty managing money across adulthood. These patterns were linked to abrupt withdrawal of support at care exit, lack of financial guidance, restrictive institutional money practices, debt burden, and earlier experiences of deprivation and instability.

Conclusions and Implications:
Findings challenge the assumption that financial independence is achieved through income attainment alone. Instead, financial well-being emerges as a developmentally patterned and relational process, shaped by institutional experiences and the enduring emotional imprint of scarcity and uncertainty. For adults who age out of care, ‘independence’ may be formally conferred at transition but remain experientially out of reach. Social work policy, research, and practice should conceptualize financial outcomes as both material and psychosocial, and should extend beyond short-term transition supports to include financial capability development, relational guidance, and trauma-informed approaches to money management.