Social barnavårdsforskning utgår i betydande utsträckning från ett behandlingsperspektiv. I denna artikel, däremot, rapporteras olika aspekter av placerade ungdomars välfärd. Genom att replikera nationella levnadsnivåundersökningar har vi undersökt välfärdsfaktorer bland ungdomar i familjehem och vid institutioner och gör jämförelser med ungdomar i normalpopulationer.

The study is a replication of the recurrent national surveys of living condition of children in normal populations. By using the same design, we approached children aged 13–18 (n=272) in foster care as well as residential care. In this article, we report results in the following dimensions: economic and material resources, psychological health and access to social support. The research questions were: (a) to what extent do children in care access resources in these dimensions? (b) are there any differences between adolescents in foster care and adolescents in residential care in this respect? and (c): are there any differences between children in care and children in general in this respect?

The study shows that children in care in general have access to less resources than those in normal populations in the welfare dimensions studied. This holds particularly for adolescents in residential care, where the differences are substantial. Thus, the care context tends to differentiate the extent to which society acts to compensate for the initial disadvantaged position from which children in care often originate. Furthermore, the article discusses how a general welfare perspective supplements and modulates the more traditional treatment perspective that is often associated with research on children in care.