Paper
Characteristics of severely troubled children, adolescents, and their families
- issue: Issue 3 / 2008
- authors: Tine Egelund, Mette Lausten
- keywords: Denmark, care careers, children in care
- views: 4366
- downloaded: 0
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abstract
Background. The paper is part of a larger Danish investigation of the characteristics of children placed in care outside their home. The sample of the study concerns all approximately 18.000 children placed in care some time during 2005. Familial background characteristics and child welfare/child protection career are analysed. The evidence-base of interventions for vulnerable children is the production of a precise picture of the target group. The large number of children and young people involved in this analysis and the rich register data available for research purposes in the Scandinavian countries allow us in this paper to present a thorough and comprehensive description of the characteristics of the most vulnerable children and youth, namely those qualifying for out-of-home care.
Purpose. The research questions of this paper are:
- What characterises the familial background of the most troubled children and youth (socio-economically, demographically, ethnically, etc.)?
- Which child welfare interventions are the children and adolescents subjected to before the placement in care?
- Which care career patterns in out-of-home placements are experienced by children placed outside home some time during 2005.
- Which background factors account for different intervention patterns.
Population and methodology. The paper describes and analyses the characteristics of all Danish children and adolescents placed in care some time during 2005. The analysis is based on administrative/registry data and concerns approximately 18.000 children placed in care.
The cared for children, their siblings, and parents are traced by their personal ID-numbers in a broad range of public registers enabling us to analyze a number of background factors characterizing them and their families. The registers to which we have access cover information about demographical variables, e.g. parents' marital status, family size and composition, death of one or both parents and cause of death, etc. They also provide information about the socioeconomic situation of the parents, e.g. their income and income sources (including public benefits), educational level, labour market participation or social exclusion, etc.
Finally, the register data concern ethnic background. In the paper we, therefore, specifically focus on the demographical, socioeconomic and ethnic characteristics of the most troubled children and youth. We have also access to register data covering all child welfare/child protection interventions the 18.000 children, placed in care in 2005, have been subjected to since birth.
We have for instance information on the children's placement history (number and duration of placements), and kind of placement (foster care, residential care, etc.) as well as on interventions in the home before placement. This means that the paper also analyzes the relationship between diverse background factors and intervention patterns towards troubled children (for instance whether ethnic minority background accounts for different interventions than ethnic Danish background).
Key findings. The findings are all quantitative. Results show that approximately 1% of the child population is placed outside home at the 31st of December 2005. Results also indicate that placement outside home is becoming a teenage phenomenon. Approximately 60% of those children placed outside home are 13-17 years of age. The main reason for placing children in care is their antisocial or delinquent behaviour. 31% of the reasons for care, reported by the local child protection services, refer to behavioural problems and delinquency.
Children placed in care have parents (mothers) who are disproportionately socially disadvantaged. Their families are poor, socially marginalized or excluded, have few network resources and the parents are, furthermore, often characterized by severe psychosocial problems such as mental illness, substance abuse, violence in the family.
The children, themselves, are disproportionately troubled by somatic illnesses as well as mental health problems. Furthermore, school performance of the cared-for children is poorer than that of their contemporaries.
Key references
Egelund, T., Hestbæk, A-D., & Andersen, D. (2004). Små børn anbragt uden for hjemmet. (Young children placed in care). Copenhagen: Socialforskningsinstituttet, 04:17.
Contacts: Tine Egelund, Programme Director The Danish National Centre for Social Research, Herluf Trolles Gade 11, DK-1052 Copenhagen K, E-mail:te@sfi.dk, Phone +45 33480821.