Opening doors or building cages? Looping effects of diagnosis in residential child care : a phenomenological account

Children living in residential child care encounter dense networks of assessment, screening, and diagnostic language. While such classifications are commonly intended to support care planning and access to resources, they also shape how young people are anticipated, engaged with, and come to understand themselves. Drawing on Ian Hacking’s concept of looping effects and a phenomenological framework, this conceptual article examines how diagnostic and carestatus labels function within residential child care as interactive markers that participate in the formation of identity, agency, and everyday practice. Synthesising existing research with illustrative vignettes drawn from the literature, the article traces a pathway via which labels move from initial classification to anticipation, interactional routines, documentation, and resource allocation, before being reinforced or modified. A phenomenological analysis foregrounds the lived experience of being a ‘care child’, showing how diagnostic language subtly shapes embodiment, temporality, intersubjectivity, and agency. The article concludes by identifying points at which looping effects can be interrupted, offering implications for reflective practice, documentation, and inter-agency work in residential child care.