| 1. |
- Berlin, Marie, et al.
(författare)
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School performance in primary school and psychosocial problems in young adulthood among care leavers from long term foster care
- 2011
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Ingår i: Children and youth services review. - : Elsevier BV. - 0190-7409 .- 1873-7765. ; 33:12, s. 2489-2494
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We used data from Swedish national registers for ten entire birth year cohorts (1972–1981) to examine psychosocial outcomes in young adulthood for youth that left long term foster care after age 17, comparing them with majority population peers, national adoptees and peers who had received in-home interventions before age 13. The population was followed in the registers from age 16 to 2005. Data were analyzed in Cox regression models.Youth who left long term foster care had six-to eleven fold sex and birth year adjusted excess risks for suicide attempts, substance abuse and serious criminality from age 20, and for public welfare dependency at age 25. Overrisks were considerably lower for the in-home intervention group and the national adoptees. Adjusting results for poor school performance in the final year in primary school (ages 15–16) reduced overrisks by 38–52% for care leavers from long term foster care.Irrespective of issues of causality, poor school performance seems to be a major risk factor for future psychosocial problems among youth who age out of long term foster care. The results suggest that promoting foster children's school performance should be given high priority by agencies.
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| 2. |
- Björkenstam, C., et al.
(författare)
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Suicidal behavior among delinquent former child welfare clients
- 2013
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Ingår i: European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1018-8827 .- 1435-165X. ; 22:6, s. 349-355
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Child welfare clients represent a high-risk group for delinquency and adult criminality, but also for future suicidal behavior. We examine associations between delinquency and suicidal behavior in a national child welfare population. This register-based cohort study is based on data for all Swedish former child welfare clients born between 1972 and 1981 that experienced interventions before their adolescent years. We followed 27,228 individuals from age 20 years until 31 December 2006. Juvenile delinquency was defined as being convicted of at least one crime between age 15 and 19. The risk of suicidal behavior was calculated as incidence rate ratios (IRRs). Fifteen percent of the women and 40 % of the men had at least one conviction between the age 15 and 19. The adjusted risk of suicidal behavior among women with five or more convictions was 3.5 (95 % CI 2.0-6.2); corresponding IRR for men was 3.9 (95 % CI 3.1-4.9). Child welfare experience-specifically of out-of-home care-in combination with delinquency is a potent risk factor for suicidal behavior among young adults. However, we cannot exclude that some of this association is an epiphenomenon of uncontrolled confounders, such as impulsivity or severity of psychiatric disease. Despite this caveat, results should be disseminated to practitioners in the health and correction services.
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| 3. |
- Björkenstam, Emma, et al.
(författare)
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Juvenile delinquency, social background and suicide-a Swedish national cohort study of 992 881 young adults
- 2011
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Ingår i: International Journal of Epidemiology. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0300-5771 .- 1464-3685. ; 40:6, s. 1585-1592
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background As the suicide rates in young adults do not show a clear decline, it is important to elucidate possible risk factors. Juvenile delinquency has been pointed out as a possible risk behaviour. Methods This register-based cohort study comprises the birth cohorts between 1972 and 1981 in Sweden. We followed 992 881 individuals from the age of 20 years until 31 December 2006, generating 10 210 566 person-years and 1482 suicides. Juvenile delinquency was defined as being convicted of a crime between the ages of 15 and 19 years. Estimates of risk of suicide were calculated as incidence rate ratio (IRR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using Poisson regression analysis with adjustment for potential confounding by their own and their parents' mental illness or substance abuse, parental education, single parenthood, social assistance, adoption and foster care. Results Among females, 5.9%, and among males, 17.9%, had at least one conviction between the ages 15 and 19 years. In the fully adjusted model, females with one conviction had a suicide risk of 1.7 times higher (95% CI 1.2-2.4), the corresponding IRR for men was 2.0 (95% CI 1.7-2.4) and 5.7 (95% CI 2.5-13.1) and 6.6 (95% CI 5.2-8.3), for women and men with five or more convictions. The effect of severe delinquency on suicide was independent of parental educational level. Conclusions This study supports the hypothesis that individuals with delinquent behaviour in late adolescence have an increased risk of suicide as young adults. Regardless of causality issues, repeated juvenile offenders should be regarded by professionals in health, social and correctional services who come into contact with this group as a high-risk group for suicide.
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| 4. |
- Björkenstam, E., et al.
(författare)
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Multi-Exposure and Clustering of Adverse Childhood Experiences, Socioeconomic Differences and Psychotropic Medication in Young Adults
- 2013
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 8:1, s. e53551-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: Stressful childhood experiences have negative long-term health consequences. The present study examines the association between adverse childhood experiences, socioeconomic position, and risk of psychotropic medication in young adulthood. Methods: This register-based cohort study comprises the birth cohorts between 1985 and 1988 in Sweden. We followed 362 663 individuals for use of psychotropic medication from January 2006 until December 2008. Adverse childhood experiences were severe criminality among parents, parental alcohol or drug abuse, social assistance recipiency, parental separation or single household, child welfare intervention before the age of 12, mentally ill or suicidal parents, familial death, and number of changes in place of residency. Estimates of risk of psychotropic medication were calculated as odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using logistic regression analysis. Results: Adverse childhood experiences were associated with increased risks of psychotropic medication. The OR for more than three adverse childhood experiences and risk of psychotropic medication was for women 2.4 (95% CI 2.3-2.5) and for men 3.1 (95% CI 2.9-3.2). The risk of psychotropic medication increased with a higher rate of adverse childhood experiences, a relationship similar in all socioeconomic groups. Conclusions: Accumulation of adverse childhood experiences increases the risk of psychotropic medication in young adults. Parental educational level is of less importance when adjusting for adverse childhood experiences. The higher risk for future mental health problems among children from lower socioeconomic groups, compared to peers from more advantaged backgrounds, seems to be linked to a higher rate of exposure to adverse childhood experiences.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Brännström, Lars, et al.
(författare)
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Long-term outcomes of Sweden's Contact Family Program for children
- 2013
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Ingår i: International Journal of Child Abuse & Neglect. - : Elsevier BV. - 0145-2134 .- 1873-7757. ; 37:6, s. 404-414
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objectives: To assess the long-term impacts of Sweden's Contact Family Program (CFP) for children on participants' future outcome profiles, here conceptualized as combinations of outcomes related to mental health problems, public welfare receipt, illicit drug use, placement in out-of-home care, educational achievement, and offending. Methods: We analyzed longitudinal register data on more than 950,000 children born 1980-90, including 6693 children who entered CFP at 2-5 years of age, with a follow-up until 2008. Children's outcome profiles were identified by latent class analysis. The average program impact was estimated by means of propensity score matching. Results: Long-term outcomes for those who had received the intervention were not better than for matched peers who did not receive the intervention. Simulation-based sensitivity analyses indicate that some of our estimated negative treatment effects may be affected by unobserved factors related to program participation and outcomes. However, both selection and outcome effects must be extremely strong in order to generate notable positive effects of CFP participation. Conclusions: The results did not find support for CFP effectiveness in reducing risks of compromised long-term development in children. Since the intervention reaches a high-risk group of children and is popular among users, volunteer families and professionals, the program should be reinforced with knowledge-based components that target known risk factors for child welfare recipients.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Forsman, Hilma, et al.
(författare)
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Interventions aiming to improve school achievements of children in out-of-home care : a scoping review
- 2012
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Ingår i: Children and youth services review. - : Elsevier BV. - 0190-7409 .- 1873-7765. ; 34:6, s. 1084-1091
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- The educational underachievement of children in out-of-home care has been known for decades. In this scoping review, we compiled and analyzed – with a narrative approach – evaluated interventions that aimed to improve foster children's school achievements. Despite a comprehensive searching strategy, only eleven relevant studies were found, indicating that little has been done in intervention research to improve educational outcomes for children in public care. Nine out of the eleven interventions reported some positive results. Literacy was improved in most studies, while evaluated attempts to enhance numeracy skills yielded mixed results. Positive results came from a range of different interventions, e.g. tutoring projects and structured individualized support. We conclude that most focused interventions seem to improve foster children's poor academic achievements, but tutoring projects have so far the best empirical support from evaluations with rigorous designs. Also there's a definite need for more intervention research.
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| 9. |
- Gauffin, Karl, et al.
(författare)
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Childhood socio-economic status, school failure and drug abuse : a Swedish national cohort study
- 2013
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Ingår i: Addiction. - : Wiley. - 0965-2140 .- 1360-0443. ; 108:8, s. 1441-1449
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Aim To investigate whether socio-economic status (SES) in childhood and school failure at 15 years of age predict illicit drug abuse in youth and young adulthood. Design setting and participantsRegister study in a Swedish national cohort born 1973-88 (n=1405763), followed from age 16 to 20-35 years. Cox regression analyses were used to calculate hazard ratios (HR) for any indication of drug abuse. Measurements Our outcomes were hospital admissions, death and criminality associated with illicit drug abuse. Data on socio-demographics, school grades and parental psychosocial problems were collected from censuses (1985 and 1990) and national registers. School failure was defined as having mean school grades from the final year in primary school lower than -1standard deviation and/or no grades in core subjects. Findings School failure was a strong predictor of illicit drug abuse with an HR of 5.87 (95% CI: 5.76-5.99) after adjustment for age and sex. Childhood SES was associated with illicit drug abuse later in life in a stepwise manner. The lowest stratum had a HR of 2.28 (95% CI: 2.20-2.37) compared with the highest stratum as the reference, when adjusted for other socio-demographic variables. In the fully adjusted model, the effect of SES was greatly attenuated to an HR of 1.23 (95% CI: 1.19-1.28) in the lowest SES category, while the effect of school failure remained high with an HR of 4.22 (95% CI: 4.13-4.31). Conclusions School failure and childhood socio-economic status predict illicit drug abuse independently in youth and young adults in Sweden.
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| 10. |
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