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This chapter documents the shift from residential to foster family care in Denmark over the period from 1982 to 2020, a shift that has resulting in higher acuity for those children and youth who find their way into residential care. Changes in national policy and the legal framework for child welfare are noted, culminating in a new Children’s Law that will take effect in 2023. Also noted is the fact that approximately one third of children in out-of-home care continue to be served in residential care. Strengths and continuing challenges in staff preparation are described, as is the centrality of social pedagogy in the Danish system. The chapter concludes with the matrix used throughout the book, which provides information about the current policy context, key trends and initiatives, characteristics of children and youth served, preparation of residential care personnel, promising programmatic innovations, and present strengths and challenges.

Previous research suggests that young adults from out-of-home care (OHC) are at high risk of low education and unemployment. However, there are no studies on their risk of long-term NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training). This study compared the risk of NEET at age 21-23 among OHC youth across Denmark, Finland and Sweden, using register data for an entire birth cohort born in 1987. The Nordic countries share many features, but there are differences in the provision of after-care support and in the linkage between the educational system and the labour market. The results show that about a fourth in Denmark and Sweden and a third in Finland were NEET, suggesting that the welfare systems were not able to compensate for the OHC youth's childhood disadvantages. To a significant extent, the excess risk of NEET was attributed to poor school performance. Implications for research, policy and practice are discussed.

Military deployment increases the risk of exposure to potentially traumatising events as well as the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental illnesses. This may have adverse consequences for the family of the deployed, including negatively affecting the well-being of children. Well-being among children of formerly deployed military personnel has mainly been studied in the United States. Research from Europe and especially Scandinavian countries is scarce, and no knowledge of the well-being of children of formerly deployed military Danish personnel exists. Since 1992, Denmark has deployed more than 30,000 soldiers and other personnel to international conflicts/warzones, and at least 14% were parents when deployed. Exploiting survey data, we examined well-being among a representative sample of 1590 children (age 11 and 15) of formerly deployed Danish fathers, compared with a representative sample of 4722 children (age 11 and 15) from the background population (controls). Well-being was examined through children’s subjective well-being measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), as well as through their perception of their family, self-evaluated school outcomes and relationships with friends. The analyses show that children of formerly deployed fathers, in general, are doing as well as children of the background population; however, the 11-year-old children of formerly deployed fathers are more challenged compared with children of the background population, both for subjective well-being and in having more conflicts with their parents.

Et longitudinalt studie med formålet at give basale repræsentative informationer om familieforholdene og opvæksten for danske børn. Der er tilfældigt udvalgt 6.011 børn bosiddende i Danmark, og som er født i 1995.

Few studies have investigated the privatisation of residential care for children and youth, and no studies have compared, mapped, and discussed the care markets that have developed in the Nordic countries. Here, we map and discuss the role of providers of residential care for children and youth in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. In addition, we explore the driving forces behind the current situation in these countries. Although these countries have significant level of privatisation, they have several differences in terms of the participation of the public sector and how market shares are divided between, for example, for-profit companies and non-profit organisations. These differences are discussed as a result of the historical positions, for example, of non-profit organisations as well as differences in the way the countries adapted New Public Management and procurement regulations. This work was initiated by a Nordic research network regarding privatisation and competitive tendering in the personal social services in the Nordic countries, funded by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working life and Welfare (FORTE).

ObjectivesTo assess if healthcare workers during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic had increased SARS-CoV-2 infection rates following close contact with patients, co-workers and persons outside work with COVID-19. DesignProspective cohort study. SettingPublic hospital employees in Denmark. Participants5985 healthcare workers (88.6% women) who daily on a smartphone reported COVID-19 contact. Main outcome measuresSARS-CoV-2 infection rates defined by the first positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test recorded in a register with complete test coverage. Results159 positive and 35 996 negative PCR tests for SARS-CoV-2 were recorded during 514 165 person-days of follow-up November 25, 2020 - April 30, 2021. The SARS-CoV-2 infection rate for healthcare workers who during the previous 3-7 days had close contact with COVID-19 patients was 153.7 per 100 000 person-days (0.15% per day) corresponding with an incidence rate ratio of 3.17 (40 cases, 95% CI 2.15 to 4.66) when compared with no close contact with COVID-19 patients. SARS-CoV-2 incidence rate ratios following close contact with co-workers and persons outside work with COVID-19 were 2.54 (10 cases, 95% CI 1.30 to 4.96) and 17.79 (35 cases, 95% CI 12.05 to 26.28). These estimates were mutually adjusted and further adjusted for age, sex, month and number of previous PCR tests. ConclusionsDespite strong focus on preventive actions during the second wave of the pandemic, healthcare workers were still at increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection when in close contact with patients with COVID-19. The numbers affected were comparable to the numbers affected following COVID-19 contact outside work. Close contact with co-workers was also a risk factor. This stresses the need for increased focus on preventive actions to secure healthcare workers health during ongoing and future waves of SARS-CoV-2 and other infections. Summary boxO_ST_ABSWhat is already known on this topic?C_ST_ABSDuring the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, preventive measures were inadequate and healthcare workers were at increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. What this study adds?During the second wave of the pandemic, despite a strong focus on preventive actions, healthcare workers were still at increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection following close contact with COVID-19 patients. The numbers affected were comparable to the numbers affected following COVID-19 contact outside work. Healthcare works were also at increased risk following close contact with co-workers.

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.This paper examines how mental health problems influence OHC youths' educational pathways and how this influence can be understood.The paper draws on a mixed-methods longitudinal study of OHC youth in Denmark.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.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.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.

BackgroundLittle is known about the long-term course of symptoms for mild coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) when accounting for symptoms due to other causes. We aimed to compare symptoms day by day for non-hospitalised individuals who tested positive and negative with polymerase chain reaction for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).MethodsWe followed 210 test-positive and 630 individually matched test-negative health-care workers of the Central Denmark Region up to 90 days after the test, April-June 2020. They daily reported seven COVID-19 related symptoms. Symptom courses were compared graphically and by conditional multivariable logistic regression.ResultsThirty % of test-positive and close to zero of test-negative participants reported a reduced sense of taste and smell during all 90 days of follow-up (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 86.07, 95% CI 22.86-323). Dyspnoea was reported by an initial 20% of test-positive with a gradual decline to about 5% after 30 days without ever reaching the level of the test-negative participants (aOR 6.88, 95% CI 2.41-19.63). Cough, headache, sore throat, muscle aches, and fever were temporarily more prevalent among the test positive participants, but after 30 days, no increases were seen. Women and participants aged 45 years or older tended to be more susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection.ConclusionPrevalence of long-lasting reduced sense of taste and smell is highly increased after being diagnosed with mild COVID-19. This pattern is also seen for dyspnoea at a low level but not for cough, sore throat, headache, muscle ache or pain, or fever.Key messagesReduced sense of taste and smell is present at a highly increased level of 30% during 90 days after testing positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2).Test-positive participants experience dyspnoea persistently more often than test-negative participants but affect only few.The prevalence of cough, sore throat, headache, muscle ache or pain, and fever following a positive test reach the level seen after a negative test within 30 days.Women and participants aged 45 years or older tend to be more susceptible to symptoms following SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Previous studies have reported that children and adolescents who have been placed in out-of-home care for the protection of their safety and welfare face considerably high risks for early school le ...

Out-of-home care in Denmark is an intervention that is available by law to a young person only up to the age of 18. At 18 he or she either starts an independent adult life or new arrangements are m...

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate associations between work postures, lifting at work, shift work, work hours, and job strain and the risk of sick leave during pregnancy from 10-29 completed pregnancy weeks in a large cohort of Danish pregnant women.METHODS: Data from 51 874 pregnancies in the Danish National Birth Cohort collected between 1996-2002 were linked to the Danish Register for Evaluation of Marginalization. Exposure information was based on telephone interviews. Hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated by Cox regression analysis, using time of first episode of sick leave as the primary outcome.RESULTS: We found statistically significant associations between all the predictors and risk of sick leave; for non-sitting work postures (HRrange 1.55-2.79), cumulative lifting HRtrend 1.29, 95% CI 1.26-1.31, shift work (HRevening 1.90, 95% CI 1.73-2.09, HRnight 1.52, 95% CI 1.15-2.01), monthly night shifts HRtrend 1.12, 95% CI 1.11-1.14, increasing weekly work hours HRtrend 0.93, 95% CI 0.91-0.95 and high job strain HR 1.52, 95% CI 1.42-1.63. Some exposures influenced HR in either a positive or negative time-dependent way.CONCLUSION: Our results support previous findings and suggest that initiatives to prevent sick leave during pregnancy could be based on work conditions. Preventive measures may have important implications for pregnant women and workplaces.

In many developed countries around the world residential care interventions for children and adolescents have come under increasing scrutiny. Against this background an international summit was organised in England (spring 2016) with experts from 13 countries to reflect on therapeutic residential care (TRC). The following working definition of TRC was leading: "Therapeutic residential care involves the planful use of a purposefully constructed, multi-dimensional living environment designed to enhance or provide treatment, education, socialization, support, and protection to children and youth with identified mental health or behavioural needs in partnership with their families and in collaboration with a full spectrum of community based formal and informal helping resources". The meeting was characterised by exchange of information and evidence, and by preparing an international research agenda. In addition, the outlines of a consensus statement on TRC were discussed. This statement, originally published in English and now reproduced in a Dutch translation, comprises inter alia five basic principles of care that according to the Work Group on Therapeutic Residential Care should be guiding for residential youth care provided at any time.

Objective To investigate the possible associations between maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and daughters' age of menarche and subsequent markers of reproductive health. Methods Nine hundred eighty-five pregnant women (80 %) were enrolled at their routine 30th week examinations in 1988-1989. In 2008, a follow-up questionnaire was completed for 365 daughters (83 %), while 267 daughters (61 %) participated in a subsequent clinical examination. Main outcome measures were age of menarche, reproductive hormone profile, and ovarian follicle count in daughters. Results Daughters of mothers in the highest pre-pregnancy BMI tertile (BMI ≥ 22.0 kg/m(2)) had an adjusted 4.1 (0.3; 8.0) months earlier menarche compared with the middle tertile group (BMI 20.0-21.9 kg/m(2)). Among non-users of hormonal contraceptives, daughters of mothers in the highest pre-pregnancy BMI tertile had non-significantly lower dehydroepiandrosterone-sulphate (DHEAS), estradiol, and free estrogen index (FEI), compared to the middle BMI tertile. This was supported by a sub-analysis using the WHO classification (underweight, BMI

none 32 si The International Work Group for Therapeutic Residential Care convened an International Summit on ‘Pathways to Evidence-Based Practice’ at Loughborough University (GBR), Centre for Child and Family Research on 27-29 April, 2016 with generous support from the Sir Halley Stewart Trust and in partnership with The European Scientific Association on Residential and Family Care for Children and Adolescents (NLD) (EUSARF), the International Association for Outcome-Based Evaluation and Research on Family and Children’s Services (ITA) (IAOBER) and the Association of Children’s Residential Centers (USA) and with the additional support of Action for Children (GBR) and the National Implementation Service (NIS) (GBR). Membership includes: Lisa Holmes (Chair), Director, Centre for Child and Family Research, Loughborough University (GBR); James K. Whittaker (Co-Chair), Charles O. Cressey Endowed Professor Emeritus, University of Washington, School of Social Work, Seattle (USA); Jorge Fernandez del Valle, Professor of Psychology and Director, Child and Family Research Group, University of Oviedo (ESP); Frank Ainsworth, Senior Principal Research Fellow (Adjunct), James Cook University, School of Social Work and Human Services, Townsville, Queensland (AUS); Tore Andreassen, Psychologist, The Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (NOR); James P. Anglin, Professor, Faculty of the School of Child and Youth Care, University of Victoria (CAN); Christopher Bellonci, Board-Certified Child/Adolescent and Adult Psychiatrist; Associate Professor, Psychiatry Department, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA (USA); David Berridge, Professor of Child and Family Welfare, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol (GBR); Amaia Bravo, Lecturer, Department of Psychology, University of Oviedo (ESP); Cinzia Canali, Senior Researcher, Fondazione Emanuela Zancan, Padova (ITA) and President, International Association of Outcome-Based Evaluation and Research in Family and Children’s Services (IAOBER); Mark Courtney, Professor, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago (USA); Laurah Currey, Chief Operating Officer, Pressley Ridge, Pittsburgh, PA (USA) and President, Association for Children’s Residential Centers, (USA); Daniel. L. Daly, Executive Vice President and Director of Youth Care, Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home, Boys Town, NE (USA); Robbie Gilligan, Professor of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin IRE), Hans Grietens, Professor, Centre for Special Needs Education & Youth Care, University of Groningen (NLD) and President, European Scientific Association on Residential and Family Care for Children and Adolescents (EUSARF); Annemiek T. Harder, Assistant professor, Department of Special Needs Education and Youth Care, University of Groningen (NLD); Martha J. Holden, Senior Extension Associate with the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research and the Principal Investigator and Director of the Residential Child Care Project at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (USA); Sigrid James, Professor, Department of Social Work & Social Ecology, School of Behavioral Health, Loma Linda University, CA (USA); Andrew Kendrick, Professor of Residential Child Care, School of Social Work and Social Policy at the University of Strathclyde (GBR) and Consultant at the Centre of Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland (CELCIS) and the Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice (CYCJ) (UK); Erik J. Knorth, Professor, Department of Special Needs Education and Youth Care, University of Groningen (NLD); Mette Lausten, Senior Researcher at SFI - The Danish National Centre for Social Research, Copenhagen (DNK), John S. Lyons, Senior Policy Fellow at Chapin Hall, University of Chicago, IL (USA); Eduardo Martin, Lecturer at the Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of La Laguna, Tenerife (ESP); Samantha McDermid, Research Fellow, Centre for Child and Family Research, Loughborough University (GBR); Patricia McNamara, Senior Fellow (Honorary), Department of Social Work, University of Melbourne (AUS); Laura Palareti, Assistant Professor in Social Psychology, Department of Education Studies, University of Bologna (ITA); Susan Ramsey, Parent and Former Children’s Mental Health Advocate, The Walker School, Needham, MA (USA); Kari M. Sisson, Executive Director, Association of Children’s Residential Centers (USA); Richard W. Small, Walker Executive Director Emeritus, The Walker School, Needham, MA (USA); June Thoburn, Emeritus Professor of Social Work, University of East Anglia (GBR); Ronald Thompson, Senior Director, Boys Town National Research Institute for Child and Family Studies, Boys Town, NE (USA); Anat Zeira, Professor, School of Social Work and Social Welfare, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Head of Research and Evaluation at the Haruv Institute (ISR). Our work group wishes to thank CFRC staffer Laura Dale at Loughborough for extraordinary efforts in producing this statement in record time and for her care and assistance with all phases of our Summit activity. Whittaker, James K; Holmes, Lisa; del Valle, Jorge F.; Ainsworth, Frank; Andreassen, Tore; Anglin, James; Bellonci, Christopher; Berridge, David; Bravo, Amaia; Canali, Cinzia; Courtney, Mark; Currey, Laurah; Daly, Daniel; Gilligan, Robbie; Grietens, Hans; Harder, Annemiek; Holden, Martha; James, Sigrid; Kendrick, Andrew; Knorth, Erik; Lausten, Mette; Lyons, John; Martin, Eduardo; Mcdermid, Samantha; Mcnamara, Patricia; Palareti, Laura; Ramsey, Susan; Sisson, Kari; Small, Richard; Thoburn, June; Thompson, Ronald; Zeira, Anat Whittaker, James K; Holmes, Lisa; del Valle, Jorge F.; Ainsworth, Frank; Andreassen, Tore; Anglin, James; Bellonci, Christopher; Berridge, David; Bravo, Amaia; Canali, Cinzia; Courtney, Mark; Currey, Laurah; Daly, Daniel; Gilligan, Robbie; Grietens, Hans; Harder, Annemiek; Holden, Martha; James, Sigrid; Kendrick, Andrew; Knorth, Erik; Lausten, Mette; Lyons, John; Martin, Eduardo; Mcdermid, Samantha; Mcnamara, Patricia; Palareti, Laura; Ramsey, Susan; Sisson, Kari; Small, Richard; Thoburn, June; Thompson, Ronald; Zeira, Anat

Being crunched for time is an important aspect of life quality. Although Denmark is a country known for gender-equality, on average mothers are more time-crunched than fathers. We show this using a representative sample of Danish dual-earner couples with at least one child aged 0–10 years. We analyze the determinants of time-crunch in relation to work factors for the individual as well as the spouse and find significant gender differences. One result is that longer working hours are associated with more time-crunch for both mothers and fathers, whereas the amount of housework only matters for mothers. The results show that men and women have different working conditions, which partly explains the gendered time-crunch.

We investigate the degree of correspondence between parents’ reports on child behavioral and educational outcomes using wave four of a rich Danish longitudinal survey of children (the DALSC). All outcomes are measured at age 11 when the children are expected to be in fifth grade. Once discrepancies are detected, we analyze whether they are driven by noisy evaluations or by systematic bias, focusing on the role of parental characteristics and response heterogeneity. We then explicitly assess the relative importance of the mother’s versus the father’s assessments in explaining child academic performance and diagnosed mental health to investigate whether one parent is systematically a better informant of their child’s outcomes than the other. Our results show that parental psychopathology, measured as maternal distress, is a source of systematic misreporting of child functioning, that the parent–child relationship matters, and that mothers are not necessarily a better informant of child functioning than fathers. This last finding should not only be valid for Denmark but also for many other countries, where the father’s role in childcare has been growing.

This paper concerns the prevalence of mental health problems among children in family foster and residential care within a Danish context. All children, born in Denmark in 1995, who are or formerly have been placed in out-of-home care (n= 1072), are compared with a group of vulnerable children of the same age, subjected to child protection interventions but living at home (n= 1457, referred to as the ‘in home care children’), and to all contemporaries who are not child protection clients (n= 71 321, referred to as the ‘non-welfare children’). Prevalence data are established on the basis of national administrative register data, including data on psychiatric diagnoses of the children, and on survey data scoring children in out-of-home care, in home care children, and non-welfare children by means of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Results show that 20% of children in out-of-home care have at least one psychiatric diagnosis compared to 3% of the non-welfare children. Almost half of the children in care (48%) are, furthermore, scored within the abnormal range of SDQ, compared to 5% of the non-welfare children.

Objective. Focusing on housework activities, we hypothesize that the degree of specialization is influenced by economic notions of efficiency, as well as by time constraints and egalitarian values. Methods. Employing time-use data on U.S. and Danish couples, we construct a composite index measure of intra-household specialization. We analyze the comparability of reported time use and our specialization index using different types of data, and then model specialization using a multivariate two-limit Tobit. Results. We find evidence that Danish households specialize less than U.S. households and that children, particularly preschool-aged children, are associated with significantly increased specialization in the United States but not in Denmark. Conclusions. We postulate that the more egalitarian social structure in Scandinavia is a driving force behind the lower rate of specialization observed in Denmark. Further, we believe the subsidized child-care services provided by the Danish welfare system reduce the impact children have on specialization in ordinary housework tasks.

This article analyzes the simultaneous determination of economic satisfaction and leisure satisfaction, separately for women and for men. Different hypotheses are tested; including the hypothesis that leisure satisfaction depends on both the quantity and quality of leisure—where quality is proxied by good intensiveness and social intensiveness. Evidence suggests that gender matters, such that good intensiveness is more important for men (e.g. housing conditions), whereas social intensiveness is more important for women (e.g. the presence of children and participation in leisure-time activities). Conversely, concerning economic satisfaction men appear more directly affected by income levels than women. In addition, we find that intra-household effects and especially individual characteristics are more pronounced for women than for men for both domain satisfactions.

In terms of paid and unpaid work, Danish men and women work the same number of hours per week. But while men do most paid work, women do most unpaid work. We investigate the interaction between paid work and unpaid work for Danish working couples, using the 2001 Danish Time Use Survey. We test several competing theories regarding the intra-individual and intra-household allocation of paid and unpaid work: comparative advantage, bargaining, assortative mating and ‘doing gender’. In addition, we divide unpaid work into ordinary housework and childcare and analyse whether these two activities interact differently with paid work hours. In general, the results favour the assortative mating and ‘doing gender’ theories, but do not support the bargaining or comparative advantage theories. Furthermore, results clearly show that housework and childcare are separate activities with different interaction effects.

This paper examines the relationship between the replacement of CEO’s and corporate performance in Danish firms. We use a unique longitudinal data set to test the hypothesis that CEO turnover is inversely related to firm performance. Evidence is provided using several measures of corporate performance and corporate governance. The results are consistent with the principal-agent theory; The threat of turnover ensures that CEO’s act in the interest of the shareholders. Moreover, the status of the chairman of the board and family ties within the management and ownership of the company strengthen the relationship between CEO turnover and firm performance.

In recent years, several OECD countries have taken steps to promote policies encouraging fathers to spend more time caring for young children, thereby promoting a more gender equal division of care work. Evidence, mainly for the United States and United Kingdom, has shown fathers taking some time off work around childbirth are more likely to be involved in childcare related activities than fathers who do not take time off. This article reports on a first cross-national analysis of the association between fathers' leave taking and fathers' involvement when children are young. It uses birth cohort data of children born around 2000 from four OECD countries: Australia, Denmark, the United Kingdom and the United States. Results show that the majority of fathers take time off around childbirth independent of the leave policies in place. In all countries, except Denmark, important socio-economic differences between fathers who take leave and those who do not are observed. In addition, fathers who take leave, especially those taking two weeks or more, are more likely to carry out childcare related activities when children are young. This study adds to the evidence that suggests that parental leave for fathers is positively associated with subsequent paternal involvement.