EMOTIONAL DISTURBANCE AND SUBSTANCE-ABUSE IN YOUTH PLACED IN RESIDENTIAL GROUP HOMES

Residential group homes are increasingly important components of the s ystem of mental health care for children and adolescents. However they often do not have sufficient resources to provide active therapeutic programs as a result of their usual missions in serving abandoned or r unaway youth. The authors studied 299 youth, ages 12 to 17 years, in f ive large residential group home programs in South Carolina. The instr uments administered were (1) the Center for Epidemiological Survey-Dep ression Scale (CES-D), (2) a brief substance abuse questionnaire, and (3) questions about socioeconomic status, previous placements, and fam ily relationship variables. A significant percentage scored above cons ervative clinical cut-off scares for the CES-D (51.7% scored 16 or abo ve and 33.6% scored 23 or above). The youth also had significant level s of substance abuse problems. However these variables were not predic tive of previous multiple out-of-home placements (runaway behavior was predictive). These findings support the importance of addressing the clinical needs of youth in these programs.