Search results

AbstractWe used a regional sample of children in long‐term foster care to investigate the prevalence of placement breakdown in adolescence, and to assess risk factors/risk markers for placement disruption. The sample consisted of all 136 foster children in the region, born 1980–1992, who on their 12th birthday had been in the same foster family for at least 4 years. They were followed in case files until date of disruption or their 18th birthday. Data on conditions before and during placement were retrieved from case files, and analysed in bi‐ and multivariate models. Results showed that one in four placements broke down in adolescence. The median child who experienced a breakdown was 14 years old, and had been in the same foster home for more than 10 years. Prominent risk factors were (i) being placed after age 2 and (ii) having a birth sibling in the same foster home. We also uncovered strong risk markers that can be viewed as precursors of placement disruption. When the child or the foster parents repeatedly over time expressed dissatisfaction with the placement, this ended with a placement breakdown in 60% of cases. Implications for practice are discussed.

Parental education is a robust predictor of children's educational outcomes in general population studies, yet little is known about the intergenerational transmission of educational outcomes in alternative family settings such as children growing up in foster care. Using Swedish longitudinal register data on 2.167 children with experience of long-term foster care, this study explores the hypothesized mediating role of foster parents' educational attainment on foster children's educational outcomes, here conceptualized as having poor school performance at age 15 and only primary education at age 26. Results from gender-stratified regression analyses suggest that there was an association between foster parental educational attainment and foster children's educational outcomes but that the educational transmission was weak and inconsistent and differed somewhat between males and females. For males, lower educational attainment in foster parents was associated with poor school performance but was not associated with educational attainment at age 26. The reverse pattern was found among females: the educational gradient was inconsistent for poor school performance but appeared in educational attainment. The results indicate that supported interventions for improving foster children's educational achievements are needed, even when placements are relatively stable and foster parents have a long formal education.

Previous research suggests that young adults from out‐of‐home care (OHC) are at high risk of low education and unemployment. However, there are no studies on their risk of long‐term NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training). This study compared the risk of NEET at age 21–23 among OHC youth across Denmark, Finland and Sweden, using register data for an entire birth cohort born in 1987. The Nordic countries share many features, but there are differences in the provision of after‐care support and in the linkage between the educational system and the labour market. The results show that about a fourth in Denmark and Sweden and a third in Finland were NEET, suggesting that the welfare systems were not able to compensate for the OHC youth's childhood disadvantages. To a significant extent, the excess risk of NEET was attributed to poor school performance. Implications for research, policy and practice are discussed.

We used Swedish national registers to analyse dental health care among young adults with childhood experience of out‐of‐home care (OHC), in Cox regression analyses. All 1.7 million Swedish residents born in 1980–1994 were included, of whom 4% had been in OHC. The population was followed up in the Dental Health Register from age 20 to 29, during the period 2009–2014. We found that persons with short or long OHC experience made emergency dental care visits more often than their majority‐population peers: 17–23% versus 9–10%, (adjusted Hazard ratios [HR:s] 1.60–2.02); they more often had tooth extractions, 9–12% versus 3% (HR:s 2.33–3.03); but less regularly visited a dentist for planned check‐ups, 61–77% versus 80–87% (HR:s 0.76–0.78). Since dental health in young adulthood reflects dental health and dental care in childhood, the findings of this study call for improved preventive dental health care for children in OHC.