Out-of-home placement in the Netherlands: Paths in youth care leading to out-of-home placement, and the predicting role of gender and age of the child.

Abstract

AIM: This study investigated the patterns in youth care trajectories that lead to out-of-home placement, and whether the age and gender of the child influenced the chance of out-of-home placement. METHODS: Participants were 516 children (241 girls, 275 boys) who all came in contact with forms of youth care between 2015-2019. Of these children, half had been placed in out-of-home care. The SPADE algorithm and logistic regression were applied to the data to answer the research question. RESULTS: Results indicate that the older the child is when he/she first gets in contact with youth care, the higher the chance of out-of-home placement. There was no effect of gender on the chance of out-of-home placement. Children who were placed in out-of-home care were more often treated by specialist mental health care facilities (S-GGZ), and/or received assistance (J&O) more often than children who were not placed in out-of-home care. CONCLUSION: To conclude, the older the child is at first contact with youth care, the higher the risk of being placed in out-of-home care, and forms of care such as S-GGZ and J&O can indicate a higher chance of out-of-home placement in the youth care trajectory later on.