Experiences of out-of-home care during childhood are associated with disadvantages that can persist long into adulthood. A new Swedish prospective cohort study takes a broad life-course perspective by examining criminal offending, psychiatric disorders and premature mortality together up to retirement age.
Children placed in out-of-home care (OHC) are often exposed to substantial adversity before and during childhood and have elevated risks of several adverse outcomes later in life. While previous research has frequently examined criminality, mental health and mortality separately, less is known about how these outcomes occur and cluster across the course of adulthood.
The study draws on the Stockholm Birth Cohort Multigenerational Study and follows individuals born in the Stockholm metropolitan area in 1953 into their early sixties. By linking information on childhood OHC with long-term data on offending, psychiatric disorders and mortality, the researchers were able to examine multiple dimensions of disadvantage across almost the entire working-age life course.
The results show that individuals with childhood experience of OHC were more likely to experience adverse outcomes in adulthood than those without such experience. Importantly, the study demonstrates that disadvantage is not confined to a single area of life: criminal offending, psychiatric disorders and premature mortality can form overlapping patterns of vulnerability across adulthood.
By bringing mortality into the analysis alongside criminal and psychiatric outcomes, the study provides a more comprehensive picture of the long-term inequalities associated with childhood OHC. The findings reinforce the importance of sustained support that recognises multiple and potentially overlapping needs extending beyond the transition from care into adulthood.
Read more: 10.1016/j.chipro.2026.100349