Factors Influencing the Subjective Well-Being of Adolescents in out-of-Home Care. A Mixed Method Study

Llosada-Gistau, Joan; Casas, Ferrán; Montserrat, Carme

doi:10.1007/s11482-019-9708-6

Cited by 11 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Male gender and younger age predicted higher QoL, which is in line with findings from the general population [16,17] and from youths in care [10,14]. While girls in the general European population reported higher scores on the peers and social support and school environment dimensions compared to boys [17], our results showed that girls had lower QoL across all dimensions.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Neither years in the current foster home nor previous service contact was predictive of QoL, which contrasts to findings that youths with longer stays in the same placement reported higher subjective wellbeing [14]. However, the youths in our sample had lived seven years in their current foster home on average, which may limit our opportunity to discover possible negative effects of short stays and frequent moves on QoL.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 82%

“…However, some European studies found similar HRQoL [ 10 ] and subjective wellbeing [ 12 ] scores for youths in foster care and youths in the general population. Furthermore, youths in foster care report higher HRQoL [ 13 ], higher subjective wellbeing [ 12 , 14 ], and more positive perceptions of their care situation [ 15 ] than youths in residential care. Thus, the current knowledge suggests that youths in foster care have a higher QoL than youths in residential care, but it is unclear whether they have lower QoL than youths in the general population.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Across European countries, boys report higher QoL and HRQoL than girls in the general population [ 16 , 17 ], and among youths in care [ 10 , 18 ]. Furthermore, younger children report higher QoL and subjective wellbeing than adolescents in the general European population [ 17 ], and in care [ 14 ]. However, some studies of youths in care found no relation between HRQoL and gender [ 7 ] or age [ 7 , 19 ], indicating that it is unclear how gender and age are related to QoL in this population.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A positive association between placement stability and subjective wellbeing has been found among youths in care [ 14 ]. Furthermore, a Cochrane review indicated that youths in kinship care had higher wellbeing compared to youths in nonkinship foster care [ 24 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Predictors of quality of life among youths in foster care—a 5-year prospective follow-up study

et al. 2020

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Purpose Few studies have investigated possible predictors of positive outcomes for youths in foster care. The aim of this prospective follow-up study was to examine quality of life (QoL) among youths in foster care and to assess whether contextual and child factors predicted QoL. Methods Online questionnaires were completed by carers in Norway in 2012 (T1, n = 236, child age 6–12 years) and by youths and carers in 2017 (T2, n = 405, youth age 11–18 years). We received responses on 116 of the youths at both T1 and T2, and our final sample consisted of 525 youths with responses from T1 and/or T2. Child welfare caseworkers reported preplacement maltreatment and service use at T1. We assessed mental health and prosocial behavior at T1 by having carers complete the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire and QoL at T2 with youth-reported KIDSCREEN-27. We analyzed the data using descriptive statistics, t-tests and multiple linear regressions, and we used multiple imputation to handle missing data. Results Youths in foster care had lower QoL across all dimensions compared to a Swedish general youth sample. QoL scores among our sample were similar to Norwegian youths with ill or substance abusing parents and to European norm data. Youths reported the highest QoL scores on the parent relations and autonomy dimension. Male gender, younger age, kinship care and prosocial behavior five years earlier predicted higher QoL. Conclusion Similar to other at-risk youths, youths in foster care seem to have lower QoL than the general Scandinavian population. Despite early adversities, they had good relations with their current carers. Adolescent girls seem especially vulnerable to low QoL and might need extra support to have good lives in foster care.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 82%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Predictors of quality of life among youths in foster care—a 5-year prospective follow-up study

et al. 2020

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Measurement invariance of the short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale and latent mean differences (SWEMWBS) in young people by current care status

et al. 2021

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Purpose Studying mental wellbeing requires the use of reliable, valid, and practical assessment tools, such as the Short version of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS). Research on the mental wellbeing of children in care is sparse. The current study aims to: (1) examine the unidimensionality of SWEMWBS; (2) assess measurement invariance of SWEMWBS across children and young people in care compared to their peers not in care; and (3) investigate the latent factor mean differences between care status groups. Methods We used data from the 2017 School Health Research Network Student Health and Wellbeing (SHW) survey, completed by 103,971 students in years 7 to 11 from 193 secondary schools in Wales. The final data include a total of 2,795 participants (46% boys), which includes all children in care and a sub-sample of children not in care who completed the SWEMWBS scale fully and answered questions about their living situation. Results Confirmatory factor analysis supported the unidimensionality of SWEMWBS. The SWEMWBS is invariant across groups of young people in foster, residential and kinship care compared to children and young people not in care at configural, metric and scalar levels. Findings from latent mean comparisons showed that young people in care reported lower mental wellbeing than their peers, with those in residential care reporting the lowest scores. Conclusions Findings suggest that SWEMWBS is a valid scale for measuring differences in mental wellbeing for young people in care similar to the population.

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Quality of Life Outcomes for Adolescents in Youth Care

Swerts¹,

Gómez²,

Dewitte³

et al. 2023

Child Ind Res

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Factors Influencing the Subjective Well-Being of Adolescents in out-of-Home Care. A Mixed Method Study

Cited by 11 publications

References 22 publications

Predictors of quality of life among youths in foster care—a 5-year prospective follow-up study

Predictors of quality of life among youths in foster care—a 5-year prospective follow-up study

Measurement invariance of the short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale and latent mean differences (SWEMWBS) in young people by current care status

Quality of Life Outcomes for Adolescents in Youth Care

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