Studies show that 2–6 percent of all children will at some point be placed in foster homes and other forms of out-of-home care. These children face an increased risk of dying prematurely, using heavy drugs, attempting suicide, and being diagnosed with a range of physical and mental illnesses. However, we have limited knowledge regarding the impact of court-ordered out-of-home placement on these risks.
Children taken into care are on average more disadvantaged than other children even before the court orders out-of-home placement. This disadvantaged background likely impacts their future outcomes, which means that if we directly compare children in care with other children, we risk arriving at misleading results due to sampling bias.
Ronja Helénsdotter is a researcher in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Gothenburg.