Psychiatric symptoms and substance use disorders in a nationally representative sample of American adolescents involved with foster care

doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2005.06.014

Journal of Adolescent Health

Volume 38, Issue 4, April 2006, Pages 351-358

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2005.06.014 Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

To ascertain the prevalence of psychiatric symptoms and substance use disorders among adolescents with a lifetime history of foster care placement, using data from a nationally representative sample of U.S. adolescents.

Methods

We studied adolescents aged 12–17 years in the public use file of the 2000 National Household on Drug Abuse (n = 19,430, including 464 adolescents with history of foster care placement). Psychiatric symptoms and substance use disorders were ascertained through direct interviewing of adolescents. Logistic regression analyses were used to estimate the odds of past-year psychiatric symptoms and substance use disorders among adolescents involved with foster care, as compared to those without a lifetime history of foster care placement (comparison group).

Results

Adolescents involved with foster care had more past-year psychiatric symptoms, and especially more conduct symptoms, and past-year substance use disorders than those never placed in foster care. Adolescents involved with foster care were about four times more likely to have attempted suicide in the preceding 12 months (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 3.95; 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.78, 5.61), and about five times more likely to receive a drug dependence diagnosis in the same period (AOR 4.81; 95% CI 3.22, 7.18).

Conclusions

Adolescents involved with foster care have a higher prevalence of psychiatric symptoms and drug use disorders than those never placed in foster care. Additionally, the results of this study suggest that they may be at elevated risk for suicide attempts.

Section snippets

Data source

This study is based on data from the public use file of the 2000 National Household on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) [20]. This study was declared exempt from the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International institutional review board because it used an existing public use data file. No information or identifiers on the data file can be associated with any survey respondent. The annual NHSDA is designed to provide national estimates of the use of a variety of licit and illicit substances by Americans

Results

In this section, we refer to adolescents with a lifetime history of foster care placement as “FC adolescents” and to those without such a history as the comparison group.

Discussion

Adolescents involved with foster care had more psychiatric symptoms of every type assessed than adolescents in the comparison group. This finding concurs with the extant literature [1], [3], [5], [6], [27], [28]. Compared with adolescents never placed in foster care, the past-year prevalence of conduct and anxiety symptoms was higher among adolescents involved with foster care. The preponderance of conduct symptoms among foster children has been reported by numerous investigators in the U.S.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R21AA013255) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R21DA015938). The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive and the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research provide the public use data files of the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, which is sponsored by Office of Applied Studies, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. At the time of the study, Dr.

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Original articlePsychiatric symptoms and substance use disorders in a nationally representative sample of American adolescents involved with foster care

Abstract

Purpose

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Section snippets

Data source

Results

Discussion

Acknowledgments

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

Child Youth Serv Rev

Child Youth Serv Rev

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

Drug Alcohol Depend

J Am Acad Child Psychiatry

Drug Alcohol Depend

The Foster Care CrisisTranslating Research into Policy and Practice

Manual for the ASEBA School-age Forms and Profiles

Mental health problems of children in foster care

J Child Fam Stud

Health status of children in foster care. The experience of the Center for the Vulnerable Child

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med

Screening and evaluating abused and neglected children entering protective custody

Child Welfare

Foster Children in a Life Course Perspective

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

Psychiatric disorders in children in caremethodology and demographic correlates

Can J Psychiatry

The course and malleability of aggressive behavior from early first grade into middle schoolresults of a developmental epidemiologically-based preventive trial

J Child Psychol Psychiatry

Etiology of early age onset substance use disordera maturational perspective

Dev Psychopathol

The informants’ reports of child behaviorparents teachers and foster parents

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

Agreement among parents teachers and children on internalizing and externalizing behavior problems

J Clin Child Psychol

Original article
Psychiatric symptoms and substance use disorders in a nationally representative sample of American adolescents involved with foster care