Mental health, negative life events and resilience among adolescents in contact with the child welfare services

Rebekka Andersen Furuhaug, Vivian Elise Jaeger Markussen, Mari Hysing, Sondre Aasen Nilsen, Ove Heradstveit and Kristin Gärtner Askeland

Children and Youth Services Review, 2024, vol. 161, issue C

Abstract: Adolescents in contact with the child welfare services (CWS) are at increased risk of experiencing negative life events (NLE) and mental health problems compared to the general population. There is, however, limited knowledge of whether protective factors can promote resilience in the CWS population in the context of NLE. Data stem from the population-based youth@hordaland study conducted in 2012, comprising 9492 adolescents aged 16–19 years. In total, 283 youth confirmed contact with the CWS and were categorized as receiving in-home services (IHS; n = 138) or living in foster care (FC; n = 145). The youth provided self-report information on NLE, mental health problems and protective factors. The IHS- and FC groups reported significantly more NLE, mental health problems and fewer protective factors compared to the general population. Adolescents receiving IHS consistently reported the most problems compared to the general population. Approximately 30 % of the association between contact with the CWS and mental health problems was mediated by NLE. Further, higher scores on the protective factors predicted lower levels of mental health problems, independent of the number of experienced NLE. Small interaction effects were found for the protective factors Goal Orientation and Family Cohesion and NLE. The results highlight that protective factors can buffer against mental health problems among adolescents receiving CWS interventions. More research is needed to further disentangle the mechanisms leading to better outcomes in this high-risk group of adolescents.

Keywords: Resilience; Negative life events; Mental health; Child welfare; Adolescents (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019074092400197X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:161:y:2024:i:c:s019074092400197x

DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2024.107625

Access Statistics for this article

Children and Youth Services Review is currently edited by Duncan Lindsey

More articles in Children and Youth Services Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().