Criminal outcomes among infants placed in out-of-home care: A longitudinal nationwide cohort study.

Background: Infant placements into out-of-home care have garnered increased research and societal attention, yet the long-term outcomes of this vulnerable group are virtually unknown.

Objective: This study aims to examine the association between infant placement and criminal offences across the life course, contrasting with general population peers and children placed at later developmental periods.

Participants And Setting: The study includes 622,940 individuals born in Sweden between 1975 and 1981, among whom around 0.

Mental disorders into adulthood among adolescents placed in residential care: A prospective 10-year follow-up study.

Background: Child welfare and juvenile justice placed youths show high levels of psychosocial burden and high rates of mental disorders. It remains unclear how mental disorders develop into adulthood in these populations. The aim was to present the rates of mental disorders in adolescence and adulthood in child welfare and juvenile justice samples and to examine their mental health trajectories from adolescence into adulthood.

Inequalities in educational outcomes in individuals with childhood experience of out-of-home care: What are driving the differences?

Background: Prior research has shown that individuals with experience of out-of-home care (foster family care or residential care) in childhood are educationally disadvantaged compared to their peers. In order to be better equipped to design interventions aimed at improving the educational outcomes of children for whom society has assumed responsibility, this study seeks to further our understanding about which factors that contribute to the educational disparities throughout the life course.

Methods: Using longitudinal data from a cohort of more than 13,000 Swedes, of which around 7% have childhood experience of out-of-home care, Peters-Belson decomposition is utilized to quantify the extent to which the gap in educational achievement in school (age 16) and midlife educational attainment (age 50) captures differences in the prevalence of factors influencing educational outcomes, and differences in the impacts between these factors.

A decade lost: does educational success mitigate the increased risks of premature death among children with experience of out-of-home care?

Background: Past research has consistently identified children with out-of-home care (OHC) experience as a high-risk group for premature mortality. While many have argued that educational success is a key factor in reducing these individuals' excessive death risks, empirical evidence has hitherto been limited. The aim of the current study was therefore to examine the potentially mitigating role of educational success in the association between OHC experience and premature mortality.

Children Placed In Out-of-Home Care as Midlife Adults: Are They Still Disadvantaged or Have They Caught Up With Their Peers?

International research has consistently reported that children placed in out-of-home care (OHC) have poor outcomes in young adulthood. Yet, little is known about their outcomes in midlife. Using prospective data from a cohort of more than 14,000 Swedes born in 1953, of which nearly 9% have been placed in OHC, this study examines whether there is developmental continuity or discontinuity of disadvantage reaching into middle age in OHC children, compared to same-aged peers.

The truly disadvantaged? Midlife outcome dynamics of individuals with experiences of out-of-home care.

Little is known about developmental outcomes in midlife of persons who were placed in out-of-home care (OHC) in childhood. Utilizing longitudinal Swedish data from a cohort of more than 14,000 individuals who we can follow from birth (1953) to the age of 55 (2008), this study examines midlife trajectories of social, economic, and health-related disadvantages with a specific focus on the complexity, timing, and duration of disadvantage in individuals with and without childhood experience of OHC. Roughly half of the OHC alumni did not have disadvantaged outcomes in midlife.

Does poor school performance cause later psychosocial problems among children in foster care? Evidence from national longitudinal registry data.

Research has shown that children in foster care are a high-risk group for adverse economic, social and health related outcomes in young adulthood. Children's poor school performance has been identified as a major risk factor for these poor later life outcomes. Aiming to support the design of effective intervention strategies, this study examines the hypothesized causal effect of foster children's poor school performance on subsequent psychosocial problems, here conceptualized as economic hardship, illicit drug use, and mental health problems, in young adulthood.