@article{ref1,
title="Rates of meaningful change in the mental health of children in long-term out-of-home care: a seven- to nine-year prospective study",
journal="Child abuse and neglect",
year="2017",
author="Tarren-Sweeney, Michael",
volume="72",
number="",
pages="1-9",
abstract="Children residing in long-term out-of-home care have high rates of clinical-level mental health difficulties. However, the stability of these children's difficulties throughout their time in care is uncertain. This paper reports estimates of the seven- to nine-year stability of carer-reported scores on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Assessment Checklists for Children (ACC) and Adolescents (ACA) for 85 children in long-term foster or kinship care. Prospective score changes on the CBCL total problems and ACC-ACA shared-item scales were assigned to one of four change groups: 'sustained mental health'; 'meaningful improvement'; 'no meaningful change'; and 'meaningful deterioration'. On each of the two measures, more than 60% of children manifested either sustained mental health or meaningful improvement in their mental health, while less than a quarter showed meaningful deterioration. Mean mental health scores for the aggregate sample did not change over the 7-9year period. <br><br>FINDINGS discount the presence of a uniform, population-wide effect-suggesting instead, that children's mental health follows several distinct trajectories. Rather than asking whether long-term care is generally therapeutic or harmful for the development of previously maltreated children, future investigations should focus on the questions &quot;…what are the systemic and interpersonal characteristics of care that promote and sustain children's psychological development throughout childhood, and what characteristics are developmentally harmful?&quot; and &quot;…for which children is care therapeutic, and for which children is it not?&quot;<br><br>Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0145-2134",
doi="10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.07.002",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2017.07.002"
}