Cumulative Risks of Foster Care Placement for Danish Children

Abstract

Although recent research suggests that the cumulative risk of foster care placement is far higher for American children than originally suspected, little is known about the cumulative risk of foster care placement in other countries, which makes it difficult to gauge the degree to which factor foster care placement is salient in other contexts. In this article, we provide companion estimates to those provided in recent work on the US by using Danish registry data and synthetic cohort life tables to show how high and unequally distributed the cumulative risk of foster care placement is for Danish children. Results suggest that at the beginning of the study period (in 1998) the cumulative risk of foster care placement for Danish children was roughly in line with the risk for American children. Yet, by the end of the study period (2010), the risk had declined to half the risk for American children. Our results also show some variations by parental ethnicity and sex, but these differences are small. Indeed, they appear quite muted relative to racial/ethnic differences in these risks in the United States. Last, though cumulative risks are similar between Danish and American children (especially at the beginning of the study period), the age-specific risk profiles are markedly different, with higher risks for older Danish children than for older American children.

Out‐of‐home placement to age 18 years in children exposed to a postpartum mental disorder

“…Our observed cumulative incidence of about 2.2% is lower than the cumulative incidence between ages 1 and 18 from U.S. population‐based research that found an overall incidence 4.2% . This is consistent with previous population‐based research in Denmark demonstrating that the difference in cumulative risks between the two countries has increased over time . For this reason, one could argue that a study focused on this outcome may not be applicable outside an individual study setting.…”

Dental healthcare utilisation among young adults who were in societal out‐of‐home care as children: A Swedish National Cohort Study

“…In Sweden, approximately 4% of all children are at some time during their childhood placed in societal out‐of‐home care (OHC, foster family or residential care), around the same proportion as in Denmark and the UK (Fallesen, Emanuel, & Wildeman, ; McGrath‐Lone, Dearden, Nasim, Harron, & Gilbert, ; Vinnerljung, ; Vinnerljung, Hjern, Weitoft, Franzén, & Estrada, ). For several decades, studies from various Western countries have reported strikingly high levels of somatic health problems in this group of children (Arora, Kaltner, & Williams, ; Chernoff, Combs‐Orme, Risley‐Curtiss, & Heisler, ; Halfon, Mendonca, & Berkowitz, ; Hansen, Mawjee, Barton, Metcalf, & Joye, ; Kling, Vinnerljung, & Hjern, ; Nathanson & Tzioumi, ; Schor, ; Steele & Buchi, ; Turney & Wildeman, ; Zewdu, ).…”

Entering out-of-home care during childhood: Cumulative incidence study in Canada and Australia

“…Wildeman and Emanuel (2014), found that 15.4% of Native American children and 11.5% of African-American children in the population entered care by age 18 compared to 4.9% of White children. More recently, the value of cumulative incidence rates for comparing the impact of differing state or national policies has been recognised (Fallensen, Emanuel, & Wildeman, 2014;Mc Grath-Lone et al, 2016). This paper builds on previous research by providing cumulative incidence rates for entry to out-of-home care in Australia and Canada, as well as examining trends over time and comparing a range of risk factors for overrepresentation in out-of-home care.…”