Mental health needs of urban children

The study goals were to determine the need for mental health services and the factors that best predicted receipt of services in a sample of urban, primarily minority children. A sample of 339 children and their caretakers (220 maltreated and 109 comparison) completed multiple measures of functioning and service use. The analysis found significantly different rates of needs and services in the two groups. While 55.3% of the maltreated children met the need for services, only 26.6% of the comparison children did. In the maltreated group, 62.2% of those meeting the need received services while 0% of the comparison children did. The logistic regression analysis found that being a child welfare client was the best predictor of receiving services. Also predicting service receipt was the relationship of the caretaker to the child (with relative caregivers more likely to receive services than biological parents) and the Total Problem score on the Child Behavior Checklist. Race/ethnicity did not predict service receipt. Type of abuse was not a predictor. Implications of the findings are discussed.