Table 3.
Risk of mental health (MH) diagnosis types for children by level of child protection involvement
| Characteristic | Organic mental disorder | Substance-related mental and behavioural disorder | Schizophrenia and psychoses | Mood (affective) disorder | ||||
| Univariate OR (95% CI) |
Multivariate OR (95% CI)* |
Univariate OR (95% CI) | Multivariate OR (95% CI)* |
Univariate OR (95% CI) |
Multivariate OR (95% CI)* |
Univariate OR (95% CI) |
Multivariate OR (95% CI)* |
|
| Child protection involvement† | ||||||||
| No involvement | Reference | Reference | Reference | Reference | Reference | Reference | Reference | Reference |
| Unsubstantiated allegation | 2.12 (1.54 to 2.92) | 1.61 (1.09 to 2.38) | 4.09 (3.74 to 4.47) | 2.05 (1.83 to 2.31) | 3.18 (2.42 to 4.18) | 1.93 (1.37 to 2.72) | 3.48 (3.15 to 3.85) | 2.29 (2.02 to 2.58) |
| Substantiated allegation | 2.61 (1.76 to 3.88) | 2.35 (1.50 to 3.68) | 4.71 (4.21 to 5.27) | 2.29 (1.98 to 2.65) | 4.59 (3.41 to 6.18) | 2.82 (1.94 to 4.10) | 4.40 (3.90 to 4.96) | 2.81 (2.43 to 3.25) |
| Substantiated allegation and entered out-of-home care | 5.80 (4.12 to 8.17) | 4.25 (2.64 to 6.83) | 8.98 (7.98 to 10.11) | 2.87 (2.43 to 3.38) | 8.40 (6.17 to 11.42) | 3.03 (1.93 to 4.75) | 5.09 (4.40 to 5.89) | 2.43 (2.01 to 2.94) |
| Substantiated allegation† | ||||||||
| No | Reference | Reference | Reference | Reference | Reference | Reference | Reference | Reference |
| Yes | 3.69 (2.83 to 4.82) | 2.85 (2.03 to 4.01) | 5.50 (5.05 to 5.99 | 2.16 (1.92 to 2.42) | 5.43 (4.34 to 6.78) | 2.56 (1.87 to 3.50) | 4.23 (3.85 to 4.66) | 2.28 (2.01 to 2.58) |
| Characteristic | Stress-related disorder | Personality disorder | Disorders of childhood and psychological development | |||
| Univariate OR (95% CI) |
Multivariate OR (95% CI)* |
Univariate OR (95% CI) |
Multivariate OR (95% CI)* |
Univariate OR (95% CI) |
Multivariate OR (95% CI)* |
|
| Child protection involvement† | ||||||
| No involvement | Reference | Reference | Reference | Reference | Reference | Reference |
| Unsubstantiated allegation | 3.99 (3.73 to 4.26) | 2.62 (2.41 to 2.84) | 4.44 (3.66 to 5.39) | 3.07 (2.43 to 3.87) | 4.00 (3.74 to 4.28) | 2.82 (2.59 to 3.06) |
| Substantiated allegation | 5.04 (4.65 to 5.46) | 3.29 (2.98 to 3.62) | 5.22 (4.14 to 6.59) | 3.40 (2.56 to 4.50) | 4.14 (3.78 to 4.54) | 2.95 (2.64 to 3.29) |
| Substantiated allegation and entered out-of-home care | 7.46 (6.84 to 8.14) | 3.52 (3.14 to 3.96) | 12.63 (10.26 to 15.55) | 6.82 (5.12 to 9.08) | 7.16 (6.57 to 7.80) | 3.72 (3.30 to 4.19) |
| Substantiated allegation† | ||||||
| No | Reference | Reference | Reference | Reference | Reference | Reference |
| Yes | 5.35 (5.04 to 5.68) | 2.77 (2.56 to 3.01) | 6.83 (5.81 to 8.04) | 3.64 (2.94 to 4.52) | 4.84 (4.53 to 5.16) | 2.64 (2.42 to 2.87) |
*All other covariates included (aboriginality, gender, socioeconomic status, parent marital status at birth, maternal age at birth, paternal age at birth, maternal MH contact, maternal substance-related contact, paternal MH contact, paternal substance-related contact).
†Separate Cox regression models, second model compares all children with substantiated allegations (including those who entered out-of-home care) to all children without substantiated allegations (including no contact or only unsubstantiated allegations).