Adversity profiles of children receiving care and support from social services: A Latent-class analysis of school-aged children in Wales

Anthony, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9503-9562, Scourfield, Jonathan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6218-8158, Moore, Graham ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6136-3978, Paranjothy, Shantini ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0528-3121, Evans, Annette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8463-5251, Brophy, Sinead, Daniel, Rhian ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5649-9320 and Long, Sara ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1284-9645 2023. Adversity profiles of children receiving care and support from social services: A Latent-class analysis of school-aged children in Wales. Child: Care, Health and Development 49 (5) , pp. 889-897. 10.1111/cch.13097

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Abstract

Background: Children receive care and support from social services due to risk of harm or impeded development, or because of disability. This study aimed to identify typologies of adversity experienced by children receiving care and support from social services, and to explore how typologies differ by sociodemographic characteristics. Methods: A cross-sectional study of ‘Children Receiving Care and Support’ (N = 12,792) during 2017/18 in Wales, UK. We sought to: 1) examine the prevalence of household adversities experienced by children in receipt of care and support from social services; 2) identify typologies of household adversities; and 3) explore how typologies of household adversities differ by family characteristics (demographics, measures of social disadvantage, perinatal and care factors). Results: We found evidence for multiple risk factor constellations. The 4-class solution suggested four distinct classes of adversities: child disability (50.0%), low adversities (20.3%), family poor health (6.7%), and multiple risks (23.0%). Children in the ‘multiple risk’ class were significantly more likely to be younger, more deprived and be ‘looked after’ by the local authority compared to those in the ‘low adversities’ class. Conclusions: Given the presence of different constellations of household adversities, policies and interventions which address multiple risk factors simultaneously may be more effective and have longer-lasting benefits.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Children’s Social Care Research and Development Centre (CASCADE) Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement (DECIPHer) Medicine Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Publisher:	Wiley
ISSN:	0305-1862
Funders:	ESRC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	19 January 2023
Date of Acceptance:	11 January 2023
Last Modified:	27 Sep 2023 17:09
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/156082

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