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The Prevalence and Patterns of Maltreatment, Childhood Adversity, and Mental Health Disorders in an Australian Out-Of-Home Care Sample
Harris, Lottie Higgins, Daryl John Willis, Megan Louise Lawrence, David Mathews, Ben Thomas, Hannah J Malacova, Eva Pacella, Rosana Scott, James G. Finkelhor, David
Harris, Lottie
Higgins, Daryl John
Willis, Megan Louise
Lawrence, David
Mathews, Ben
Thomas, Hannah J
Malacova, Eva
Pacella, Rosana
Scott, James G.
Finkelhor, David
Abstract
This study aimed to explore key characteristics of the out-of-home care subgroup of a nationally representative Australian sample. To ensure that mental health services are appropriately targeted, it is critical that we understand the differential impacts of childhood experiences for this cohort. Using the Australian Child Maltreatment Study (N = 8503), we explored patterns of childhood maltreatment and adversity of participants who reported ever being placed in out-of-home care, such as foster care or kinship care. In addition, the prevalence of current and lifetime diagnosis of four mental health disorders were explored. Results showed that the care experienced subgroup reported more types of maltreatment and adverse experiences than the control group. They were also more likely to meet diagnostic threshold for post-traumatic stress disorder, generalised anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder than the control group. These findings can be used to guide mental health practitioners to target interventions more effectively within the out-of-home care cohort.
Keywords
posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, population, foster care
Date
2024
Type
Journal article
Journal
Book
Volume
Issue
Page Range
1-13
Article Number
ACU Department
Institute of Child Protection Studies
Faculty of Education and Arts
School of Behavioural and Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty of Education and Arts
School of Behavioural and Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Collections
Relation URI
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
License
File Access
Open
Open
Open
Notes
© The Author(s) 2024.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the Sage and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the Sage and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).