What explains child welfare children’s underachievement in the educational system? A life course approach
Information
Period
2018-2020/2021
Funder
Swedish Research Council (VR)
Amount
€ 270 000
Project members
- Lars Brännström | Stockholm University (PI)
- Hilma Forsman | Stockholm University
- Ylva B Almquist | Stockholm University
- Bo Vinnerljung | Stockholm University
Description
It is well-established that children involved in the child welfare system, here covering both foster and residential care (out-of-home care/OHC), underachieve in the educational system and have substantially poorer educational attainment as adults compared to their peers. Yet, we know little about how this underachievement is brought about. Drawing on life course theory as well as theories of social stratification within the field of educational sociology, the aim of the proposed project is to further our understanding of this issue. The project will be based on a 60-year follow-up of a 1953 Stockholm cohort, of which around 9% have had experience of OHC at some point from birth up until age 19. This cohort material, combined with recent advances in statistical models for longitudinal data, enables us to both separately and simultaneously investigate a set of hypotheses related to life-course theories on human development. Based on our detailed mapping of the child welfare children’s educational careers, we intend to examine a wide range of mechanisms related to the family and the school, as well as the individual’s social, cognitive, and behavioral development from birth to adulthood. Taken together, this will help pinpointing which, when and how policy measures/interventions aimed at improving educational outcomes in this group work.
Most recent news
Key findings
Compared to non-OHC peers, OHC children had lower school grades in sixth grade, in ninth grade as well as lower educational attainment in midlife (Forsman & Stenberg, 2022). It was also found that they tended not to proceed to post-compulsory education, even when their school grades allowed for choosing a more ambitious educational route (Brännström & Stenberg, 2021). Cognitive ability and previous school performance (grades) were found to have the largest explanatory power for their educational careers (Forsman, 2020). Yet there was some evidence that the rewards of cognitive ability in OHC children differed across the life course. While the lower returns of cognitive ability suggest that they were underperforming in compulsory school, the higher returns of cognitive ability on midlife attainment indicate that their attainment in midlife reflects their cognitive capacity more accurately than their achievement in adolescence does (Brännström et al., 2020). Although the OHC experienced were found to be less likely of having completed higher education, among those who did, they were – irrespective of when they were first placed – more likely of completion later in life (Forsman & Brännström, 2023). While placement in OHC and other types of child welfare involvement are strong indicators of educational disadvantage, the level of childhood adversities (including parental alcohol misuse, parental mental illness, and parental criminality) in OHC experienced individuals does not contribute to our understanding of the variation in their long-term educational outcomes (Forsman & Jackisch, 2022). Foster parents’ educational attainment was moreover not found to be such a robust predictor of OHC children’s educational outcomes as parental education is found to be for children who live continuously with their birth parents (Berlin et al., 2019). All in all, findings suggest that OHC experienced individuals’ educational outcomes may not only benefit from specific support targeting educational choices but also from more general inclusive education policies that allow for life-long learning.
Publications
- Berlin, M., Vinnerljung, B., Hjern, A. & Brännström, L. (2019). Educational outcomes of children from long-term foster care: Does foster parents’ educational attainment matter? Developmental Child Welfare, 1(4): 344-359.
- Brännström, L., Forsman, H., Vinnerljung, B. & Almquist, Y. B. (2020). Educational inequalities in individuals with childhood experience of out-of-home care: What are driving the differences? PLoS ONE, 15(4): e0232061.
- Brännström, L. & Stenberg, S-Å. (2021). Primary and secondary effects on long-term educational outcomes in individuals with experience of child welfare interventions. Child Abuse Review, 30(1): 48-61.
- Forsman, H. (2020). Exploring educational pathways over the life course in children with out-of-home care experience: A multi-group path analysis. Children and Youth Services Review, 111: 104852.
- Forsman, H. & Brännström, L. (2023). Timing of higher education in out-of-home care experienced individuals: On schedule or delayed? Developmental Child Welfare, 5(4): 190-203.
- Forsman, H. & Jackisch, J. (2022). Cumulative childhood adversity and long-term educational outcomes in individuals with out-of-home care experience: Do multiples matter for a population defined by adversity? British Journal of Social Work, 52(5): 2495-2514.
- Forsman, H. & Stenberg, S-Å. (2022). Samhällsvårdade barns utbildningsvägar: Från mellanstadiet till medelåldern. Socialvetenskaplig tidskrift, 3: 249-268.