Learning difficulties and academic competence among children in contact with the child welfare system

Abstract

ABSTRACTChildren who have been in the welfare system tend to have poor social and health outcomes as adults. The aim of this study was to examine learning difficulties, as well as academic competence, among children in contact with child welfare service, and to compare this group to their same‐age peers. The material consisted of 4114 children in fifth to seventh grade, of which 101 were in contact with child welfare services. Information on learning difficulties and academic competence was obtained through questionnaires to teacher and parent/caregivers. As expected, there were significantly more children with learning difficulties in the child welfare group than the peer group; 12% of child welfare clients had general learning difficulties compared to only 0.4% of their peers, and 31% had specific learning difficulties in relation to mathematics and/or reading and writing, compared to 10% of their peers. The majority of child welfare children received assistance from pedagogical–psychological services. While more than every second child welfare client without general learning disability had low academic competence, there were also 15% who had high academic competence. The results show that although many of the children in contact with child welfare service have learning difficulties, there is also heterogeneity and potential for academic achievement.