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.