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Questions about whether love can be offered in residential child care units, whether combining child protection and safeguarding in social work with loving care or care with love is possible, and whether children and young people feel loved by someone who is paid to care for them, have raised long-standing issues. Social pedagogy puts such questions at the core of its philosophy and practice, and has been a fundamental part of care in Denmark for many years. Drawing on a Danish survey of 1,400 children in out-of-home care, this paper analyses the subjective feeling of love amongst children living in out-of-home care. The main moderating factors for feeling loved are the feeling of security and the feeling of social support, the tangible counterpart of Honneth's concept of recognition.

ABSTRACTThis 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.

AbstractChildren and young people's right to participate in decisions affecting their lives has received considerable attention in recent years; however, there is no fixed definition of what their involvement means in practice and there is no consensus regarding how to determine the level of involvement. The purpose of this study was to quantitatively investigate the involvement of vulnerable young people in their own case processing. Based on quantitative measures of young people's relationships to their caseworkers, how well informed they feel and how much influence they seem to have, we analysed how involved young people feel in their own case processing and we show significant differences in involvement using a combination of survey and administrative data. We found considerable co‐existence of poor well‐being and poor involvement. By sampling a large proportion of the total group, and by receiving answers from 2334 young people, corresponding to one in five of all vulnerable young people in either out‐of‐home care or receiving in‐home preventive care, we are able to show significant differences in involvement. Consequently, we argue that questionnaire‐based surveys can help nuance the understanding of involvement challenges.

In this paper we investigate the net income distribution across Europe using data from the 2000 wave from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP). The determination of female income is explored using conditional quantile regression with selection correction. The results show that differences in labour supply and family structure are important across both the income distribution and regions; additionally, the interaction terms between regions and family structure show a large variation. While the incomes of women in some regions are unaffected by having children or by being in a couple, women in other regions experience varying effects on their income. This implies that differences in family structure are important determinants of female income across Europe.

Objective. Focusing on housework activities, we hypothesize that the degree of specialization is influenced by economic notions of efficiency, as well as by time constraints and egalitarian values.Methods. Employing time‐use data on U.S. and Danish couples, we construct a composite index measure of intra‐household specialization. We analyze the comparability of reported time use and our specialization index using different types of data, and then model specialization using a multivariate two‐limit Tobit.Results. We find evidence that Danish households specialize less than U.S. households and that children, particularly preschool‐aged children, are associated with significantly increased specialization in the United States but not in Denmark.Conclusions. We postulate that the more egalitarian social structure in Scandinavia is a driving force behind the lower rate of specialization observed in Denmark. Further, we believe the subsidized child‐care services provided by the Danish welfare system reduce the impact children have on specialization in ordinary housework tasks.

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.

ABSTRACTWith placement in residential care, society assumes overall responsibility for a child's daily care, well‐being and development. How public authorities respond to poor care quality is of crucial importance. To guarantee quality care and minimise risks, welfare states increasingly develop different mechanisms and systems to supervise out‐of‐home care. In this article, we analyse how central inspectorates in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden deal with what can be conceived as the last supervisory measure, namely, the revocation of licences. The aim is to describe and analyse how frequently and why national inspectorates in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden withdraw residential care licences. The findings are based on an analysis of all available documented reports on revocation decisions between 2017 and 2021. The findings reveal that, between 2017 and 2021, there were 53 licence suspensions or revocations across the four countries, albeit with variations among the nations. Furthermore, the study shows that residential care units (RCUs) generally have a documented history of interactions with inspectorates. Revocation decisions were often attributed to several reasons, with safety, staff‐related concerns and documentation deficiencies being the primary factors. The findings are discussed based on concepts and theory on regulation and supervision.