Mental Health Service Use Of Youth Leaving Foster Care (Voyages) 2001-2003

The study was funded to explore the changes in mental health service use as older youth leave the foster care system. The data, however, examine many parameters of the lives of older youth in the foster care system, from their perspective. Four-hundred six youth in the Missouri foster care system were interviewed in person near their 17th birthday. They were re-interviewed when possible every three months until their 19th birthday. Eighty percent of the youth were interviewed at age 19. Thus, the study includes nine data points. Domains of instrumentation include psychiatric history, substance use, child maltreatment history, mental health service use, attitudes toward mental health service use, residential history, religious involvement, reading level, dating violence, trauma history, stress, perception of neighborhood, psychopathy, employment, legal involvement, childbearing, sexual activity, and much more. Few variables were assessed at each interview time point.