ChildrenChildren mental health mental health follow-up in youth follow-up in youth

communities of the SOS-communities of the SOS-Children’s VillageChildren’s Village

Linda Rajhvajn Bulat & Vanja Branica

Department of social work, Faculty of law Zagreb, Croatia

INTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTIONLife of a child in public care is burdened with:o a history of traumatic and stress events in the

primary familyo temporary or permanent loss of one’s parentso the experience of additional trauma of being

isolated from familiar surrounding o adjustment to new living conditions.

Everyday life in public care (residential or foster) requires additional adjustment to new and unknown social situations.

Mental health of children is influenced by the social environment and subject to different stresses that are more intensive in children who are growing up in some form of public care.

Public care for children in Croatia

The social care of children deprived of parental care is organized through two types of placement:

Residential placement (group homes) – 16 state child group homes or in family homes funded by NGO-s (SOS – Children’s Village, Nuevo Futuro)

Foster placement into families (mostly continental, rural parts of Croatia)

METHODOLOGY

This research is part of a bigger 5 year longitudinal study “Possibilities to improve public child care”

The aim of the study was to develop empirically based indicators for improvement of public child care and development of criteria for evaluation of interventions.

The goal of the conducted study was to determine psychosocial needs of children in public care.

The goal and research problems

The aim of this research is to examine mental health of children in SOS – Children's Villages in period of 5 years, specifically we are trying to examine:

1. How stabile is children’s mental health

2. How reliable and concordant are children’s and child care workers’ appraisals of children’s mental health

The sample and procedure

57 children and youth examinees from the youth communities of the SOS – Children's Village Croatia

At the first measurement (2003) – 13.2 years old in average (10-19 years, SD=2.07)

At the follow-up study (2008) – 18.3 years old in average (16-24 years, SD=1.96)

40.4% of boys (23) and 59.6% girls (34)

Questionnaire was administrated by children and child care workers

Instruments

The Youth Self-Report (Achenbach, 1991)

The Child Behavior Check-List (Achenbach, 1991) Withdrawal

Somatic complaintsAnxiety and depression

Social problemsThought problemsAttention problems

Delinquent behaviorsAggressive behaviors

Instruments

The Youth Self-Report (Achenbach, 1991)

The Child Behavior Check-List (Achenbach, 1991)

Questionnaire of Daily Stress (Ajduković and Sladović, 1999)

The Scale of Perceived Social Support (Živčić-Bećirević, 1996)

RESULTS

VARIABLE MEASUREMENT M SD t p

Withdrawal1st 3,17 3,59

2,194 ,0392nd 1,70 1,72

Somatic complaints

Anxiety and depression

Social problems1st 3,70 3,21

2,364 ,0272nd 2,17 2,53

Thought problems1st 1,52 2,54

2,950 ,0072nd ,26 ,86

Attention problems1st 7,09 5,03

2,590 ,0172nd 4,48 4,25

Delinquent behaviors

Aggressive behaviors1st 13,70 10,53

3,066 ,0062nd 7,35 7,74

Table 1. Boys’ mental health in 5 year period – appraisal

RESULTS

VARIABLE MEASUREMENT M SD t p

Withdrawal

Somatic complaints

Anxiety and depression

Social problems

Thought problems

Attention problems

Delinquent behaviors1st 2,59 2,03

-3,175 ,0032nd 4,50 3,32

Aggressive behaviors1st 8,35 5,07

-2,039 ,0502nd 10,41 4,96

Table 2. Girls’ mental health in 5 year period – self appraisal

RESULTS

VARIABLE MEASUREMENT M SD t p

Withdrawal

Somatic complaints1st ,88 1,53

-2,205 ,0352nd 1,68 2,06

Anxiety and depression

Social problems

Thought problems

Attention problems

Delinquent behaviors

Aggressive behaviors

Table 3. Girls’ mental health in 5 year period – appraisal

RESULTS

VARIABLE r MEASUREMENT M SD t p

Withdrawal,360**

Somatic complaints ,023

Anxiety and depression,401**

Social problems,272*

Thought problems,319*

Attention problems,362**

Delinquent behaviors ,1781st 2,74 2,18 -

3,760

,0002nd 4,42 3,00

Aggressive behaviors ,2161st 8,28 4,93 -

2,010

,0492nd 9,97 5,17

Table 4. Children’s mental health in 5 year period – self appraisal

VARIABLE r MEASUREMENT M SD t p

Withdrawal,563**

Somatic complaints,358**

1st ,72 1,32 -2,05

6,0442nd 1,21 1,79

Anxiety and depression,351**

Social problems,573**

1st 3,39 2,82 2,475

,0162nd 2,56 2,61

Thought problems,485**

1st ,95 1,88 2,491

,0162nd ,40 ,90

Attention problems,491**

Delinquent behaviors ,234

Aggressive behaviors,438**

1st 9,95 9,24 2,268

,0272nd 7,32 6,82

RESULTS

Table 5. Children’s mental health in 5 year period – appraisal

VARIABLE r MEASUREMENT M SD t p

Withdrawal,563**

Somatic complaints,358**

1st ,72 1,32 -2,05

6,0442nd 1,21 1,79

Anxiety and depression,351**

Social problems,573**

1st 3,39 2,82 2,475

,0162nd 2,56 2,61

Thought problems,485**

1st ,95 1,88 2,491

,0162nd ,40 ,90

Attention problems,491**

Delinquent behaviors ,234

Aggressive behaviors,438**

1st 9,95 9,24 2,268

,0272nd 7,32 6,82

RESULTS

Table 5. Children’s mental health in 5 year period – appraisal

VARIABLE MEASUREMENT M SD t

Social support1st 31,67 2,16 23,924

**2nd 19,74 2,61Everyday stress

1st 59,33 10,61-2,280*

2nd 63,54 8,94

RESULTS

VARIABLE 1st measurement

2nd measurement

Withdrawal ,066 ,285*

Somatic complaints ,147 ,350**

Anxiety and depression

,178 ,353**

Social problems ,258 ,305*

Thought problems ,156 ,016

Attention problems ,095 ,107

Delinquent behaviors ,269* ,224

Aggressive behaviors ,172 ,367**

Table 6. Correlations between appraisals and self-appraisals of children’s mental health

CONCLUSION

The results have shown that the test-retest correlations on most sub-scales of children’s mental health are statistically relevant, but this relevance ranges from low to middle

Child care workers evaluate that mental health of boys at the retest point has improved

In self-evaluation girls give evidence of their increasing externalization of problems

CONCLUSION

The appraisals of children and child care workers are not so concordant it is necessarily to take information from different sources

Maybe the largest restriction of this study is high level of drop out (more than 50%)

It is question whether it is appropriate to use same questionnaires on children and youth/young adults

Thank you for your Thank you for your attention!attention!