Former Stockholm child protection cases as young adults: Do outcomes differ between those that received services and those that did not?

This study reports on outcomes in young adulthood for previous CPA clients, by examining the prevalence of teenage parenthood, criminal offences, hospitalizations for psychiatric diagnoses, and self-support problems in a representative sample of subjects born 1968 to 1975, that resided in Stockholm (Sweden) their entire childhood, from birth to age 18. In this sample, 161 were previous CPA service receivers (service group) 110 were referred to the CPA during childhood but did not receive services (non-service group), and 1961 never had any known contact with the CPA (majority population). Almost every second man (45%) and woman (45%) in the service group had at least one negative outcome, compared to 37% of the men and 25% of the women in the non-service group, and 14–21% of the men and 7–12% of women in the majority population. Multiple regressions suggest that the impact of CPA services was scant, accounting for 1–14% of the variance of outcome variables. The results point to the potential value of including unsubstantiated cases of child maltreatment in follow-up studies of child protection clients. Implications for the findings are discussed.