Briefly in English

Title of the research project 

Out-of-home care and service trajectories among young children in child welfare.

Goals of the research project

In this project, our aim is to study Out-of-home care (OHC) and service trajectories among young (0-6 years) children. More specifically, we examine the accumulation of OHC placements, and identify different care and service trajectories, including the use of various social and healthcare services before and after a child’s placement into OHC. Additionally, we examine which child- and parent-related factors, such as service use, are associated with different care and service trajectories among young children.

Research questions

The research project provides knowledge about out-of-home care and service trajectories among young children, as well as the factors associated with these trajectories.

The project is divided into two sub-studies. In the first sub-study, we will examine the accumulation of OHC placements and different OHC trajectories among young children. We are interested in whether changes have occurred across time and which child- and parent-related factors are associated with different OHC trajectories and the accumulation of OHC placements. We focus especially on child and parental health, as well as social and economic aspects. In this sub-study, we use  Finnish national register-based data, including the Child Welfare Register maintained by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), integrated with other national registers maintained by Statistics Finland, Finnish Social Insurance Institution, and THL.

In the second sub-study, we will examine the young children’s service trajectories before and after placement into OHC, focusing on client relationships and service use in child and family social work, child welfare open care, and healthcare services. Additionally, we will examine which child- and parent-related factors explain a child’s belonging to certain service or OHC trajectories. In this sub-study, we use register-based data from the Wellbeing Services County of Southwest Finland, which include information on clients of child and family social work, as well as client relationships and service use in child welfare and health care.

The research questions of the project are:

1.How do out-of-home care placements accumulate, and what kinds of care trajectories do young children have? (Sub-study 1)

2.What kinds of service trajectories do young children have before and after out-of-home care, considering child and family social work, child welfare, and health care services? (Sub-study 2)

3.What child- and parent-related factors are associated with the accumulation of out-of-home care placements and with different out-of-home care and service trajectories among young children? (Sub-study 1 & 2)

Focus group, research data and methods

This research project focuses on young children (aged 0-6 years) placed in out-of-home care (OHC) and their parents.

This study uses different national register-based datasets and local social and healthcare register-based data from the Wellbeing Services County of Southwest Finland. National and local data will be used as separate data samples.

The analyses use longitudinal and cross-sectional study designs and various statistical methods.

Schedule 

The project started in September 2025 and will continue until December 2028. 

Funding and implementation  

The Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has granted the project three years of funding, totalling 510, 000 euros. 

Contacts 

Professor Johanna Kallio, University of Turku (research group leader), jomkall@utu.fi