Parental substance abuse and suspected child abuse/maltreatment predict outcome in children's inpatient treatment.

There has been relatively little empirical study of outcome for school aged children treated in psychiatric hospitals. In earlier studies, four preadmission variables were operationally defined and studied as hypothesized predictors of poor outcome in psychiatric day treatment by the criterion of recommended in-home or out-of-home placements on discharge. The preadmission variables are recent histories of severe aggression and suicidal ideation/behavior in the child and histories of parental substance abuse and reported suspicions of child abuse/maltreatment. In this study, the work has been extended to determine if these four preadmission factors relate to outcome of children treated in inpatient hospitalization. The findings indicate that the parent/family related variables, and not the child variables (nor child diagnosis), are significantly related to out-of-home recommended placements.