Mental health in young people in relation to child welfare and institutional care in childhood

This study shows that children with experience of child welfare and institutional care are clearly more disturbed than their peers who lived without external intervention and with their original families. The results indicate that child welfare intervention has only been of limited help to disadvantaged children especially for children with psychiatric and educational problems. Preventive measures have to be extended and psychotherapeutic interventions intensified before child welfare can compensate the handicaps and drawbacks of seriously disadvantaged children and secure the quality of life for them.