Child strengths and the level of care for children with emotional and behavioral disorders

Child strengths have been recognized as an important variable in clinical decision making. In the present study, data were gathered on 270 children to determine how psychiatric symptoms, functioning, risk behaviors, and child strengths contributed to decisions about placement and intensity of services. Symptoms, functioning, and risk were found to be significantly related to child strengths, and children in homelike settings were found to possess significantly higher levels of strengths than children in nonhomelike settings. A series of logistic regression models demonstrated that child strengths were significantly associated with child placement, even after accounting for the effects of age, race, and level of risk. The data reveal an orderly relationship between child strengths and placement at varied levels of symptoms and risk.