Prevalence of mental health problems among children placed in out‐of‐home care in Denmark

Abstract

A B S T R AC TThis paper concerns the prevalence of mental health problems among children in family foster and residential care within a Danish context. All children, born in Denmark in 1995, who are or formerly have been placed in out-of-home care (n = 1072), are compared with a group of vulnerable children of the same age, subjected to child protection interventions but living at home (n = 1457, referred to as the 'in home care children'), and to all contemporaries who are not child protection clients (n = 71 321, referred to as the 'non-welfare children'). Prevalence data are established on the basis of national administrative register data, including data on psychiatric diagnoses of the children, and on survey data scoring children in out-of-home care, in home care children, and non-welfare children by means of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Results show that 20% of children in out-of-home care have at least one psychiatric diagnosis compared to 3% of the non-welfare children. Almost half of the children in care (48%) are, furthermore, scored within the abnormal range of SDQ, compared to 5% of the non-welfare children.

Comparing long-term placements for young children in care: Does placement type really matter?

“…Significant ma-jorities of children in foster care have been found to fall within the borderline or abnormal range on the SDQ Total Difficulties score based on parent/carer reports. This has been found to include as many as up to half (Dunne & Kettler, 2008;Egelund & Lausten, 2009) and as much as three-quarters (Milburn, Lynch, & Jackson, 2008) of the populations under investigation, suggesting that these difficulties may be having a significant impact on these children's lives. Less is known about the prevalence of these difficulties for children who have been adopted from care.…”

Research on the Danish Longitudinal Survey of Children (DALSC) at the Danish National Centre for Social Research

“…A number of DALSC studies have focused on health conditions of children in out-of-home care [13][14][15][16], using survey as well as register-based data. Studies based on survey data found no evidence that children (aged 7 and 11) were doing worse in regard to the general health condition (periods of illnesses; prevalence of pains in the stomach; headache; cough, etc.)…”

“…To obtain a precise picture of distribution of diagnoses found among CiC children, one study [16] used registers as a source of information and focused on the prevalence of mental health problems among all children from the 1995 birth cohort: 1072 children in out-of-home care were compared to two groups: a group of vulnerable children (in home care, subjected to child protection interventions, n ¼ 1457), and a group of all contemporaries in general who were not child protection clients (n ¼ 71,321). Prevalence data were established on the basis of register data, including data on psychiatric diagnoses of the children.…”

Avaliação de um programa de promoção da saúde mental com crianças institucionalizadas

“…Estima-se, com efeito, que a percentagem de crianças institucionalizadas necessitando de apoio psicológico/psiquiátrico rondasse os 30%. A elevada taxa de incidência de problemas de saúde mental de crianças institucionalizadas parece reunir consenso na investigação (Egelund & Lausten, 2009;Gonçalves, Almeida, Guimarães & Alves, 2005;McDonald, Allen, Westerfelt & Piliavin, 1996). Efetivamente, muitos estudos revelam que as crianças institucionalizadas parecem apresentar uma maior incidência de problemas de comportamento e déficit ao nível do funcionamento adaptativo, comparativamente às crianças da população em geral (Clausen, Landsverk, Ganger, Chadwick & Litrownik, 1998;Pecora, Jensen, Romanelli, Jackson & Ortiz, 2009).…”