Background-Preliminary evidence suggests that sexual minority (e.g. lesbian, gay, bisexual, and same-sex attracted) youth are overrepresented in child welfare services. Yet, no study to date has been able to test this hypothesis with national data.Objective-Using a two-study design, we test whether sexual minority youth are overrepresented in child welfare, foster care, and out-of-home placement using nationally representative data from the United States. Participants and setting-Study 1 data are from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (n = 14,154; Mean age = 15.4). Study 2 data are from wave three of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being II (n = 1,309; Mean age = 15.0). Methods-ForStudy 1, we use adjusted logistic regression models to test differences in lifetime foster care involvement between sexual minority and heterosexual youth. In Study 2, we calculate a Disproportionality Representation Index (DRI) -a ratio of sample prevalence relative to the general population -to estimate whether sexual minority youth were overrepresented in child welfare and out-of-home care.Results-Study 1 results indicate that sexual minority youth are nearly 2.5 times as likely as heterosexual youth to experience foster care placement (aOR = 2.43, 95% CI 1.40, 4.21, p = .002). Results from Study 2 show that sexual minority youth were largely overrepresented in child welfare services (DRI = 1.95 to 2.48) and out-of-home placement (DRI = 3.69 to 4.68).

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