权益分类	功能权益	普通用户	{{item.name}}会员
{{category.name}}	{{benefitItem.name}}

Longitudinal mental health trajectories of children growing up in State care in England: An exploration of patterns and influencing factors

英国国家护理中成长的儿童的纵向心理健康轨迹：模式和影响因素的探索

基本信息

批准号：
ES/R006482/1
负责人：
Dinithi Wijedasa
金额：
$ 51.31万
依托单位：
University of Bristol
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2019
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2019 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FR006482%2F1
关键词：
Longitudinal mental health trajectories children

项目摘要

Children in care constitute a most vulnerable group of children in the society. The aim of this study is to contribute to our understanding of how mental health of children in care varies over time and to explore how these patterns of mental health are influenced by care experiences, individual factors and school related factors over time. At any given time in England, there are around 70,000 children being looked after by the State (also referred to as 'children in care'). More than 60% of these children are taken into State care due to experiences of severe maltreatment such as abuse or neglect. Consequently, being taken into care is an 'intervention' for this vulnerable group of children, with the expectation that State care will then ameliorate or at least stabilise their mental health. Despite this, numerous research studies indicate that mental concerns in this vulnerable child population is high, with 50% of children in State care having a diagnosable mental health concern, when compared to 10% of children in the general population. Despite the evidence of high prevalence of mental health need shown by this group of children, there is a dearth of knowledge on the longitudinal patterns of mental health of children in care in England.This project, which maps on to the ESRC strategic priority area of mental health, aims to fill this gap in knowledge through: (1) secondary analyses of longitudinal, national-level administrative data on children in care and (2) a survey of children in care in 15 local authorities, which will provide supplementary data to enable analyses of how children's characteristics, school and care related factors influence the mental health patterns of children in care. Apart from the use of secondary data, the study's main innovation will be to use statistical modelling techniques known as latent trajectory models. Use of advanced statistical methods such as these have been signposted as lacking in social work research by the ESRC Strategic Adviser for Social Work and Social Care Research, with recent reviews indicating that only a very small proportion of social work research studies currently use advanced quantitative methodologies. The study will benefit from the continuous involvement of and collaboration with a range of stakeholders through the establishment of both a 'stakeholder' advisory group (policy makers, practitioners, academics, charities and other organisations such as the Children's Commissioner) as well as a 'children in care' participation group at the outset of the project. The 'children in care' participation group will be directly involved in creating the survey for children in care and in designing feedback reports that will be sent to all children in care in the participating local authorities. Additionally, the research team will work directly with the management and practitioners of the 15 local authorities to feedback the results and organise peer-learning activities to facilitate changes to local policy and practices pertaining to the assessment of and provision for mental health services for children in care.In recent years, there has been renewed recognition of the mental health needs of children and young people, aided by a significant push by the UK Government to provide more streamlined support for children and young people with mental health needs. New and timely information from this study on the specific groups of children in State care who are most at risk for mental illness and the factors that positively/negatively influence mental health outcomes would enable policy makers, practitioners and other organisations who champion children's mental health to better inform policy formation, policy implementation and effective resource allocation for children in care, who will be the ultimate beneficiaries of this research.

受照料的儿童是社会中最脆弱的儿童群体。本研究的目的是帮助我们了解儿童的心理健康如何随着时间的推移而变化，并探讨这些模式的心理健康如何随着时间的推移受到护理经验，个人因素和学校相关因素的影响。在英格兰的任何时候，都有大约70，000名儿童由国家照顾（也称为“照顾儿童”）。这些儿童中有60%以上由于遭受虐待或忽视等严重虐待而被国家照料。因此，接受照料是对这一弱势儿童群体的一种“干预”，期望国家的照料能够改善或至少稳定他们的心理健康。尽管如此，许多调查研究表明，这一弱势儿童群体的精神问题很高，50%接受国家护理的儿童有可诊断的精神健康问题，而一般人口中的儿童只有10%。尽管有证据表明，这类儿童对心理健康的需求普遍较高，但对英格兰受照料儿童的心理健康纵向模式缺乏了解。该项目与ESRC的心理健康战略优先领域相对应，旨在通过以下方式填补这一知识空白：（1）对关于受照料儿童的国家一级纵向行政数据进行二次分析;（2）对15个地方当局的受照料儿童进行调查，提供补充资料，以便分析儿童的特征，学校和照顾相关因素如何影响受照顾儿童的精神健康模式。除了使用二手数据外，该研究的主要创新将是使用被称为潜在轨迹模型的统计建模技术。使用先进的统计方法，如这些已路标缺乏社会工作研究的ESRC社会工作和社会关怀研究战略顾问，最近的审查表明，只有很小比例的社会工作研究目前使用先进的定量方法。这项研究将受益于一系列利益相关者的持续参与和合作，通过建立一个“利益相关者”咨询小组（政策制定者，从业人员，学者，慈善机构和其他组织，如儿童专员）以及在项目开始时建立一个“受照料儿童”参与小组。“受照料儿童”参与小组将直接参与创建受照料儿童调查，并设计反馈报告，这些报告将发送给参与的地方当局的所有受照料儿童。此外，研究小组将直接与15个地方当局的管理层和从业人员合作，反馈研究结果，并组织同行学习活动，以促进当地有关评估和为照顾儿童提供精神健康服务的政策和做法的改变。近年来，人们重新认识到儿童和青少年的精神健康需求，英国政府大力推动为有心理健康需求的儿童和青少年提供更精简的支持。这项研究提供了关于受国家照料的儿童中最有可能患精神疾病的特定群体以及对精神健康结果产生积极/消极影响的因素的新的和及时的信息，将使政策制定者、从业人员和其他倡导儿童精神健康的组织能够更好地为受照料儿童的政策制定、政策执行和有效资源分配提供信息，谁将是这项研究的最终受益者。