- Title
- The children in care study: an epidemiological study of the mental health of children in foster and kinship care, and associated risk factors
- Creator
- Tarren-Sweeney, Michael J.
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2005
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- The thesis describes the development, pilot and baseline stages of the Children in Care study, a prospective epidemiological study of the mental health of 347 children aged 4-11 years in court-ordered foster and kinship care in NSW, Australia. The study obtained mental health, socialisation and risk exposure estimates for eligible children, via a state-wide mail survey of foster parents and kinship carers, and from the child welfare computer database. Design strengths included the simultaneous measurement of a large of developmental, pre-care and in-care risk factors, and access to retrospective risk data recorded close to the time of children's exposure. Mental health was measured using the Child Behavior Checklist and the Assessment Checklist for Children (ACC). The latter was developed systematically using a combination off inductive and deductive strategies, for the purpose of measuring problems specifically manifested by children in care. Children were reported as having exceptionally poor mental health, both relative to the general population and to other populations of children in care. Children presented with complex disturbances, including multiple presentation of conduct problems and defiance, attachment insecurity and attachment disturbance, attention deficit/hyperactivity, trauma-related anxiety, and sexual behaviour. Children also manifested problems rarely seen among children at large, including self-injury, abnormal pain responses and food maintenance behaviours. The findings challenge traditional notions of psychiatric disturbance as applied to this population. It is argued that their problems are best conceptualised as complex disturbance profiles, based around core attachment and trauma-related difficulties. The principal independent predictors of mental health problems were: a history of developmental problems; older age at entry into care; indicators of placement insecurity; recent adverse life events; and some specific forms of maltreatment (contact sexual abuse, physical assault, emotional abuse). Genetic/pre-natal effects were modelled by controlling for exposure to social adversity. The study also investigated several sibling-related research questions, and obtained the first reliable estimates of the mental health of siblings in care.
- Subject
- mental health; foster care; children; children in care; kinship care
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1314695
- Identifier
- uon:22803
- Rights
- Copyright 2005 Michael J. Tarren-Sweeney
- Language
- eng
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