Abstract

BackgroundYouth under juvenile justice (JJ) supervision are at high-risk of adverse outcomes from substance use, making prevention important. Few studies have examined prevention-related attitudes of JJ employees, yet such attitudes may be important for implementing prevention programs. Attitudes toward prevention may reflect individual characteristics and organizational contexts.MethodsMixed effects regression was used to analyze data from 492 employees in 36 sites participating in the Juvenile Justice—Translational Research on Interventions for Adolescents in the Legal System (JJ-TRIALS) cooperative agreement. JJ employees’ perceived importance of substance use prevention was measured. Staff-level variables included attitudes, job type, and demographic characteristics. Site-level variables focused on use of evidence-based screening tools, prevention programs, and drug testing.ResultsOn average, JJ employees rated substance use prevention as highly important (mean = 45.9, out of 50). JJ employees generally agreed that preventing substance use was part of their agency’s responsibility (mean = 3.8 on scale ranging from 1 to 5). At the site level, 72.2% used an evidence-based screening tool, 22.2% used one or more evidence-based prevention program, and 47.2% used drug testing. Reported importance of prevention was positively associated with site-level use of screening tools and drug testing as well as staff-level attitudes regarding prevention being consistent with the agency’s mission.ConclusionsThe associations between screening and prevention attitudes suggest that commitment to identifying youth needs may result in greater openness to preventing substance use. Future efforts to implement substance use prevention within JJ agencies charged with supervising youth in the community may benefit from highlighting the fit between prevention and the agency’s mission.

Highlights

  • Youth under juvenile justice (JJ) supervision are at high-risk of adverse outcomes from substance use, making prevention important

  • This study draws upon data collected as part of the Juvenile Justice-Translating Research Interventions for Adolescents in the Legal System (JJ-TRIALS) cooperative research, which is supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

  • As part of a larger study to improve the delivery of evidencebased substance use services for justice-involved youth under community supervision, data were collected from employees working within 36 JJ sites, which were located in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas

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Summary

Introduction

Youth under juvenile justice (JJ) supervision are at high-risk of adverse outcomes from substance use, making prevention important. Prior studies have found between 20% and 51% of JJ youth report a SUD (Teplin et al 2006; Wasserman et al 2010) compared to 11% in the general population (Merikangas et al 2010), which if unaddressed and untreated can significantly complicate their justice involvement. Substance use has been associated with a range of health and behavioral health adverse conditions, such as trauma exposure (especially assaultive violence), suicidal behavior (Nolen et al 2008; Wasserman and McReynolds 2006; Wasserman and McReynolds 2011), elevated sexual risk behaviors and STIs (Teplin et al 2003; Elkington et al 2010) and school dropout. On the other hand, when justiceinvolved youths are diverted to behavioral health services, their recidivism risk is decreased (Cuellar et al 2006; Hoeve et al 2013b), along with their behavioral health needs

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