Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Research, University Psychiatric Clinics, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Department for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany.
Eur Psychiatry. 2022 Jun 22;65(1):e40. doi: 10.1192/j.eurpsy.2022.30.
Child welfare and juvenile justice placed youths show high levels of psychosocial burden and high rates of mental disorders. It remains unclear how mental disorders develop into adulthood in these populations. The aim was to present the rates of mental disorders in adolescence and adulthood in child welfare and juvenile justice samples and to examine their mental health trajectories from adolescence into adulthood.
Seventy adolescents in shared residential care, placed by child welfare ( = 52, mean age = 15 years) or juvenile justice ( = 18, mean age = 17 years) authorities, were followed up into adulthood (child welfare: mean age = 25 years; juvenile justice: mean age = 27 years). Mental disorders were assessed based on the International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision diagnoses at baseline and at follow-up. Epidemiological information on mental disorders was presented for each group. Bivariate correlations and structural equation modeling for the relationship of mental disorders were performed.
In the total sample, prevalence rates of 73% and 86% for any mental disorder were found in adolescence (child welfare: 70%; juvenile justice: 83%) and adulthood (child welfare: 83%; juvenile justice: 94%) respectively. General psychopathology was found to be stable from adolescence into adulthood in both samples.
Our findings showed high prevalence rates and a high stability of general psychopathology into adulthood among child welfare and juvenile justice adolescents in Swiss residential care. Therefore, continuity of mental health care and well-prepared transitions into adulthood for such individuals is highly warranted.
儿童福利和少年司法机构收容的青少年表现出较高的心理社会负担和较高的精神障碍发生率。这些人群中的精神障碍如何发展到成年期仍不清楚。目的是呈现儿童福利和少年司法机构收容青少年和成年人群体中的精神障碍发生率，并研究他们从青少年到成年的心理健康轨迹。
70 名在共同居住护理中被儿童福利（n=52，平均年龄=15 岁）或少年司法机构（n=18，平均年龄=17 岁）当局安置的青少年被随访至成年期（儿童福利：平均年龄=25 岁；少年司法：平均年龄=27 岁）。基于《国际疾病分类》第 10 版诊断，在基线和随访时评估精神障碍。为每个群体呈现精神障碍的流行病学信息。对精神障碍的关系进行了双变量相关和结构方程建模分析。
在总样本中，青少年期（儿童福利：70%；少年司法：83%）和成年期（儿童福利：83%；少年司法：94%）的任何精神障碍的患病率分别为 73%和 86%。在两个样本中，一般精神病理学从青少年到成年期都保持稳定。
我们的研究结果表明，瑞士居住护理中的儿童福利和少年司法机构收容的青少年成年后普遍存在较高的精神障碍发生率和较高的稳定性。因此，高度需要为这些人提供心理健康护理的连续性和为成年做好准备的过渡。
