Teenagers' emotional symptoms and antisocial behavior in group home care: A myth or reality?

Abstract

Background: Child advocates, group home and child protection workers report high levels of emotional symptoms and antisocial behavior among teenagers living in group homes. Extant studies is, however, silent on the prevalence of emotional symptoms and its association with teenagers' antisocial behavior in group homes.

Objective: The study aims at examining the association between emotional symptoms and teenagers' antisocial behavior and how prevalent emotional symptoms are among teenagers living in group homes.

Participants and setting: A total of 875 teenagers living in group homes in Ontario, Canada were included in the study.

Method: Ontario Looking After Children data of cohorts surveyed in 2010-2015 was used for analysis. The data included participants' gender, age, ethnicity, general health status, academic challenges, conduct problems, group home size and emotional symptoms.

Result: Teenagers' emotional symptoms was found to be associated with their antisocial behavior (OR = 2.49, 95 % CI 1.83, 3.39). Sixty-three percent (63 %) of the teenagers experience emotional symptoms of anxiety on regular basis, four out of every 10 of them show depressive symptoms. Majority of them (73.7 %) get nervous when faced with new situations and can lose confidence in such instances and 54.5 % of them could easily get scared in such situations.

Conclusion: Findings suggest that there is a significant association between teenagers' emotional symptoms and their antisocial behavior. Findings also show that there is significant prevalence of emotional symptoms among teenagers in group homes in Ontario. The social and clinical implications make future research into the issue important.