The role of mental health problems in out-of-home care youths' educational pathways: Quantitative and qualitative analysis of Danish longitudinal data

Background
While the low educational attainment of out-of-home care youth (OHC youth) has been well established, less is known about the role mental health problems play in shaping their educational pathways.

Objective
This paper examines how mental health problems influence OHC youths' educational pathways and how this influence can be understood.

Participants and setting
The paper draws on a mixed-methods longitudinal study of OHC youth in Denmark.

Methods
Sequence and cluster analyses and logistic regressions of survey data (n = 525) and administrative registries were used and combined with narrative analyses of two qualitative cases.

Results
We identified four educational pathways: 1) the typical academic pathway, 2) the typical vocational pathway, 3) the disrupted pathway, and 4) the non-completion pathway. Moreover, mental health problems were found to be an essential predicting factor of entrance into the disrupted pathway (3) or the non-completion pathway (4). For youths who entered the disrupted pathway (3), mental health problems appeared to be the key predicting factor. Even though mental health problems also played a fundamental role in entrance into the non-completion pathway (4), we also found a more complex intersection of predictive factors, such as care history, lack of social support, and other social problems, such as cannabis abuse and homelessness.

Conclusions
The findings showed a need for a stronger focus on how mental health problems among OHC youths impact their educational pathways. Mental health problems played a key role in OHC youths' transition to independent adulthood and, consequently, their chances for a better life.