Health Profiles of Adolescents in Foster Care

The purpose of this paper is to describe health profiles of adolescents in foster care. The Child Health and Illness Profile–Adolescent Edition clustered adolescents in foster care into 13 mutually exclusive health profiles using dimensions of satisfaction with health, risks, resilience, and discomfort. Health profiles were further characterized into four health status rankings from best to worst health status. Many reported best health status (39%); nearly equal numbers (30.6%) had profiles indicating poor or worst health status, particularly girls and those with high risk behaviors, aggression, sexual abuse, or suicidality. It is valuable to identify health characteristics of the most vulnerable subgroups of foster youth to tailor specific interventions.