McWey Lenore M, Cui Ming, Wojciak Armeda Stevenson
Department of Human Development and Family Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA.
Department of Family Social Science, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA.
Child Adolesc Social Work J. 2022 Oct;39(5):573-581. doi: 10.1007/s10560-022-00834-8. Epub 2022 Mar 22.
Adolescents in foster care can be quite resilient, yet they also are at risk for developing internalizing and externalizing mental health concerns. Positive family relationships are central to adolescent mental health, and these relationships can be complex for youth in foster care placements. Accordingly, there can be significant heterogeneity in the mental health symptoms of youth in foster care. The aims of this study were to identify distinct subgroups of youth patterns of internalizing and externalizing symptoms and determine the extent to which positive biological and foster parent relationships predicted profiles of low youth mental health symptoms. Using data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being II ( = 343) and a person-centered analytic approach, results revealed four distinct profiles of youths' mental health symptoms, those with: high internalizing and high externalizing symptoms, high internalizing and moderate externalizing symptoms, moderate internalizing and moderate externalizing symptoms, and low internalizing and low externalizing symptoms. Additionally, youth with better relationships with biological parents were less likely to be in the high symptoms group compared to the low symptoms group. These findings can be used to inform targeted intervention efforts aimed to lessen the mental health symptoms of youth in foster care.
寄养环境中的青少年可能具有很强的复原力，但他们也有出现内化和外化心理健康问题的风险。积极的家庭关系对青少年心理健康至关重要，而对于处于寄养环境中的青少年来说，这些关系可能很复杂。因此，寄养青少年的心理健康症状可能存在显著的异质性。本研究的目的是识别青少年内化和外化症状模式的不同亚组，并确定积极的亲生父母和寄养父母关系在多大程度上预示着青少年心理健康症状较低的情况。利用来自全国儿童和青少年幸福调查二期（N = 343）的数据以及以人为中心的分析方法，结果揭示了青少年心理健康症状的四种不同情况，即：高内化和高外化症状、高内化和中度外化症状、中度内化和中度外化症状以及低内化和低外化症状。此外，与亲生父母关系较好的青少年相比低症状组，在高症状组中的可能性较小。这些发现可用于为旨在减轻寄养青少年心理健康症状的有针对性的干预措施提供信息。
