The mental health and wellbeing of care-experienced young people during early and later adolescence

BackgroundCare-experienced young people (CEYP) have far higher rates of mental ill-health than their peers. Less is known about their wellbeing and the overlap between mental health and wellbeing in this population. Drawing on two samples of CEYP, we explored mental health and wellbeing profiles, the overlap between these, and basic predictors of symptom severity.MethodsWe recruited two samples of CEYP: 269 10-13-year-olds and 155 16-17-year-olds, and their primary caregiver. All participants were either in local authority (out-of-home) care or had been adopted from the care system in England and Wales. Participants completed standardised measures of anxiety-, depression-, PTSD-, and externalising symptoms, as well as standardised wellbeing measures.ResultsThe majority of young people in both samples reported clinically-elevated symptomology, with mental health and wellbeing particularly poor in the late adolescents sample. Almost half of the 16-17 year old sample rated their wellbeing as poor. Overall, we found moderate associations between mental health and wellbeing. In early adolescents, these associations were less clear (many with clinically-elevated mental health reported average wellbeing), but for older teens poor mental health was closely related with the poorest reported wellbeing. There was no consistent evidence that age, gender, or ethnicity predicted wellbeing, but mental health was generally the poorest for older teens in residential care placements.ConclusionsWe found high levels of disorder-specific mental health symptomology in CEYP, with 16-17-year-olds having particularly high levels of mental health difficulties and low wellbeing. Results highlight the crucial role of early intervention and prevention in this group, before difficulties become entrenched and affect wider aspects of wellbeing.