title: The Effect of Medical Treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) on Foster Care Caseloads: Evidence from Danish Registry Data.
abstract: Since the early 2000s, foster care caseloads have decreased in many wealthy democracies, yet the causes of these declines remain, for the most part, a mystery. This article uses administrative data on all Danish municipalities (N = 277) and a 10% randomly drawn sample of all Danish children (N = 157,938) in the period from 1998 to 2010 to show that increasing medical treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) accounts for a substantial share of the decrease in foster care caseloads. According to our estimates, the decline in foster care caseloads during this period would have been 45% smaller absent increases in medical treatment of ADHD. These findings are especially provocative in light of recent research showing ambiguous effects of medical treatment of ADHD. Future research should be attentive to how medical treatment aimed at addressing children's acute behavioral problems could also have a powerful effect on foster care caseloads.
authors.affiliation: The Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden Rockwool Foundation Research Unit, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen C, Denmark pf@rff.dk.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fallesen
authors.affiliation: Rockwool Foundation Research Unit, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen C, Denmark Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wildeman
mesh_terms: D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000188:drug therapy*; D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002648:Child; D003718:Denmark; D005260:Female; D005581:Foster Home Care; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008774:Methylphenidate / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012042:Registries
chemical_list: D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants; D008774:Methylphenidate
keywords: ADHD; administrative data; child welfare; children’s behavioral problems; foster care