System-involved Youth Research Articles

Foster Youth Need Sex Ed, Too!: Addressing the Sexual Risk Behaviors of System-Involved Youth

ABSTRACTThe social, economic, and environmental determinants of health include employment, housing, and education; exposure to environmental factors like lead or access to healthy food; and poverty, racism and oppression. Many of these conditions can lead to Adverse Childhood Experiences that may put children and youth at risk for abuse or maltreatment leading to involvement in the child welfare or juvenile justice systems. All young people experience important developmental milestones on their path to becoming healthy adults, and while this time of change is full of promise, it can be a time of increased vulnerability or risk. For system-involved youth, navigating this time of change can be fraught with even more challenges or barriers. Without strong family and social networks, they may face increased risk of engaging in high-risk behaviors—such as unprotected sex and sex with multiple partners—as well as unintended pregnancy, HIV, and other sexually transmitted infections. Our study examined survey data to assess the overall sexual reproductive health behaviors for youth aged 14–21 in out-of-home care in an urban environment (n = 270; 60.7% male; 82% African American; 7.9% Latinx). Youth were recruited between 2012 and 2016; 76.4% of these teens had had sexual intercourse at some point in their lifetime. Of these, 86.0% were sexually active before the age of 16. Although there were numerous risk factors related to contraception and condom use as well as partner demographics, there were assets or strengths identified. A discussion of how these findings can be utilized to develop effective prevention intervention strategies is provided.

“Who Knows Me the Best and Can Encourage Me the Most?”: Matching and Early Relationship Development in Youth-Initiated Mentoring Relationships with System-Involved Youth

Youth-initiated mentoring (YIM), in which youth select adults from within their communities to serve as mentors in relationships that are formalized through mentoring programs, has the potential to redress problems faced by many mentoring programs that could adversely affect system-involved youth, such as volunteer attrition and premature match closures. However, only a few programs have implemented YIM, and there is little research on this approach. This qualitative interview study examines the formation of YIM relationships and how they are experienced by mentors ( n = 14), youth ( n = 17), and the youths’ parent/guardian ( n = 6). Youth tended to select adults whom they had encountered through school or social services. Findings indicate that the YIM selection process contributed to mentor, youth, and parent/guardian investment in the mentoring relationship and to the youth’s rapid development of feelings of closeness and trust in the mentor. Knowing that mentors would be nonjudgmental, trustworthy, and dedicated appeared to facilitate positive relationship development, which is important given the difficulty of engaging and serving system-involved youth in mentoring programs.

73 - Differences in Dating Violence Between Heterosexual and Gender and Sexual Minority System-Involved Youth

Purpose: System-involved youth in the juvenile justice system or foster care report high rates of dating violence (DV). Gender and/or sexual minority (GSM) youth similarly report high rates of DV. Little is known about the experiences of DV in system-involved GSM youth. Our objective was to compare experiences of DV between GSM and cisgender heterosexual (CH) system-involved youth.

A Life-Course Developmental Analysis of the Cycle of Violence

Research on the cycle of violence has consistently indicated a link between maltreatment and subsequent offending. Less attention has been given to whether the timing or type of maltreatment affects later delinquent behavior. This study investigates these issues. The timing of maltreatment is coded as occurring during childhood only (i.e., ages 0–11), adolescence only (i.e., ages 12–18), and persistent maltreatment (experienced in both childhood and adolescence). Analyses also examine if the impact on self-reported delinquency and arrest at age 18 varies according to the type of maltreatment (neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse) based on official records from child protective services agencies. This study relied on secondary analysis of prospective data from 890 to 898 participants in the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN). Results from logit and negative binomial regression models indicate statistically significant relationships between adolescent only and persistent maltreatment and delinquency and arrest, and these relationships varied according to the type of maltreatment assessed. No significant relationships were found between any type of maltreatment experienced in childhood only and any of the outcomes. These findings suggest that adolescent maltreatment is more strongly related to delinquent behavior than childhood only maltreatment, which means that some justice system-involved youth will likely be coping with recent exposure to trauma. Services should be integrated into juvenile justice diversion and treatment programs to address these traumatic experiences. The results also suggest that future research continue to assess how the cycle of violence may vary according to the timing and type of maltreatment experienced by victims.

Placement and Delinquency Outcomes Among System-Involved Youth Referred to Multisystemic Therapy: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis.

Multisystemic therapy (MST) was developed to help youth with serious social, emotional, and behavioral problems. Research on the efficacy and effectiveness of MST has shown positive outcomes in different domains of development and functioning among various populations of youth. Nonetheless, even with a large body of literature investigating the treatment effects of MST, few studies have focused on the effectiveness of MST through large-scale dissemination efforts. Utilizing a large sample of youth involved in a statewide dissemination of MST (n = 740; 43% females; 14% Black; 29% Hispanic; 49% White; Mage = 14.9 years), propensity score matching was employed to account for baseline differences between the treatment (n = 577) and comparison (n = 163) groups. Treatment effects were examined based on three outcomes: out-of-home placement, adjudication, and placement in a juvenile training school over a 6-year period. Significant group differences remained after adjusting for baseline differences, with youth who received MST experiencing better outcomes in offending rates than youth who did not have an opportunity to complete MST due to non-clinical or administrative reasons. Survival analyses revealed rates of all three outcomes were approximately 40% lower among the treatment group. Overall, this study adds to the body of literature supporting the long-term effectiveness of MST in reducing offending among high-risk youth. The findings underscore the potential benefits of taking evidence-based programs such as MST to scale to improve the well-being and functioning of high-risk youth. However, strategies to effectively deliver the program in mental health service settings, and to address the specific needs of high-risk youth are necessary.

The Influence of Environmental Aces on Sexual Health Outcomes Among System-Involved Youth

The Influence of Environmental Aces on Sexual Health Outcomes Among System-Involved Youth

Expressive writing intervention promotes resilience among juvenile justice-involved youth

Youth involved in child welfare and juvenile justice systems suffer from alarmingly high rates of mental health challenges. In particular, exposure to trauma (e.g., maltreatment) is one critical experience that amplifies their risk for delinquency and recidivism. Despite a profound need to address these youth's mental health needs, there is a paucity of trauma-informed and youth-centered treatments that are clinically feasible in under-resourced residential settings (e.g., juvenile detention facilities). In response to this gap, our research team collaborated with the juvenile justice subsection of a large American city's child welfare system with the goal of creating an intervention tailored to the needs of underserved system-involved youth. The resultant program, WRITE ON (Writing and Reflecting on Identity To Empower Ourselves as Narrators), leverages research on the therapeutic benefits of expressive writing to implement a brief, cost-effective intervention in youth residential settings. This paper describes intervention development and presents findings from the pilot study, which comprised a multisite experimental evaluation of youth (N=53) residing in short-term detention facilities. This pilot study aimed to: 1) assess intervention implementation fidelity, including participant satisfaction, and 2) evaluate the mental health outcomes of youth receiving WRITE ON as compared to those in a comparison support group (CSG). Results indicated that the intervention was delivered with good fidelity, participants reported high levels of satisfaction, and WRITE ON participants exhibited significant (p<0.01) gains in resilience compared to their counterparts in the CSG. Collectively, results suggest that a larger clinical trial investigating the effectiveness of WRITE ON with system-involved youth is warranted.

“Parents need a village”: Caseworkers' perceptions of the challenges faced by single parents of system-involved youth

Drawing upon the lived experience of juvenile justice caseworkers, this phenomenological study aimed to describe the challenges faced by single parents with children in the custody of the juvenile justice system, and how parenting practices are affected. Ten caseworkers were interviewed, from which the following essence emerged: “Parents need a village.” Five themes supported and contextualized this essence by detailing how challenges not only fall along each level of the Ecological Model, but also interact with one another, leaving parents with a profound sense of powerlessness and detachment from their children, themselves, and their futures. This study underscores that stakeholders combating youth violence must take an ecological approach in their efforts to support parents. Interventions should target neighborhood and individual needs, such as employment, housing, crime, service accessibility, and mental health problems, while simultaneously addressing issues of classism and racism that trap parents in cycles of poverty and violence.

Quasi-experimental study of Functional Family Therapy effectiveness for juvenile justice aftercare in a racially and ethnically diverse community sample

Functional Family Therapy (FFT) is an intensive community-based treatment program designed to reduce youth behavior problems such as violence, drug use, and other delinquency. Although there is evidence of FFT efficacy and effectiveness with predominantly White samples, there is very little evidence with racial/ethnic minority samples. In light of the over-representation of African American and Latino youth in the juvenile justice system, this study examined the effectiveness of FFT and an adaptation of FFT to probation supervision, called Functional Family Probation (FFP), among a predominantly Latino and African American sample of youth returning home from court-ordered out-of-home placements (OHPs). Propensity score weighting was used to compare the likelihood of subsequent OHPs among youth receiving standard probation (Comparison group), and youth receiving FFT (with standard probation), youth receiving FFP (instead of standard probation), and youth receiving FFT in combination with FFP. Results indicated that youth receiving FFT (both with standard probation and FFP), relative to Comparison youth receiving standard probation only, had significantly lower likelihood of OHP during the first two months following release, but this advantage disappeared in later months. Youth receiving only FFP also had lower likelihood of OHP than Comparison youth in the first two months, though not significantly. These findings provide encouraging evidence of positive effects of FFT, in combination with FFP or standard probation, among a diverse sample of juvenile justice system-involved youth.

SELF-Advocacy education for Youth: The Role of Law School Communities in expanding opportunities for System-Involved Youth

The legal community is uniquely positioned to help youth involved in foster care and juvenile justice systems transition to adulthood by helping them learn to advocate for themselves in pursuing their education and career goals. At leading law schools, students have facilitated the “Getting Beyond the System”1 (GBS) self-advocacy seminar for at-risk youth, tapping into law students’ training to promote social justice. This promising innovation helps system-involved youth acquire advocacy skills, forge relationships with adults in the community, and fulfill their potential to become participating citizens. Keypoints for the Family Court Community Law school communities play a key role in an innovative model of self-advocacy education that gets at-risk youth beyond the system in the transition to independence. Lawyers and law students who promote and protect the rights of children can take additional steps to help young people learn to advocate for themselves. Youths from government systems have not usually developed adequate self-advocacy skills which are necessary in contexts such as education, work and career, housing, healthcare, as a parent. A self-advocacy education model at leading law schools demonstrates that the legal community can help youths emancipated from foster care and juvenile justice systems take their roles as independent citizens.

Democracy and Demonstration in the Grey Area of Neo-Liberalism: A Case Study of Free Los Angeles High School

School punishment policies in the United States are increasingly prone to exclusion. In an effort to rid the school of risky disturbances, these measures push disruptive students out of the educational environment or into the criminal justice system. The task of educating these excluded youth has undergone a process of neo-liberal ‘responsibilization’, as communities are charged with dealing with drop-outs and push-outs from mainstream schools as well as system-involved youth. This is illustrated by a case study of a community school established by a social movement organization in Los Angeles, United States. While neo-liberalism is touted as a vehicle for crime control and efficiency, in practice, the outcomes of responsibilization can set the stage for progressive take on education to burgeon as well as mobilization against ‘law and order’ policies and social abandonment that come with adherence to market principles.

Exploring the Relationship Between Gender, Mental Health Needs, and Treatment Orders in a Metropolitan Juvenile Court

We explored personal, social, and legal factors associated with different types of mental health treatment orders in one Missouri metropolitan court where the majority of system-involved youth are African-American. The research question under investigation is: with objective assessment information at their disposal, do judges order mental health treatment based on indicators of need or do they follow the pattern found in other studies where demographic and legal variables are key indicators? The bivariate results indicate that while males and females do not differ in mental health status, they do differ in psychosocial needs and offense patterns. In the multivariate analysis, the mental health treatment specific model indicates that commonly used indicators of need, prior mental health status and being female are related to receiving treatment orders. In the substance abuse treatment specific model, the significant factors are closely aligned with need: drug offenses, substance abuse problems, and negative influence of peers.

Examining the Meaning Attached to Mental Illness and Mental Health Services Among Justice System-Involved Youth and Their Parents

A large percentage of youth involved in the juvenile justice system experience mental health problems, yet many do not receive mental health care. In this study, we used a process-focused framework of mental health decision making to gain insight into the use of mental health services among these youth. In-depth interviews were conducted with nine youth and nine parents participating in a program servicing youth with mental health problems who have been in detention. Themes related to problem recognition, the decision to seek and participate in services, subjective norms, and juvenile justice system involvement emerged. Most families acknowledged their youth was having problems, but few defined those problems in mental health terms. This did not prevent them from seeking services, although some were not able to access adequate services until the justice system became involved. Participants were aware of negative attitudes about mental illness, and might have limited their social networks to shield themselves.

Understanding and Facilitating the Youth Mentoring Movement

Understanding and Facilitating the Youth Mentoring Movement

Racism and Classism in the Youth Justice System: Perspectives of Youth and Staff

ABSTRACT Although numerous quantitative studies have examined racial disparity in the youth justice system, studies have ignored the perspectives of youth about whether racism exists within the system. This study used focus groups with system staff and focus groups and individual interviews with system-involved youth of color to explore perceptions of race and class bias within one state's youth justice system. Findings indicate that the majority of both staff and youth perceive that race and class bias are present, and that staff demonstrated apparently unintentional racism and classism during the focus groups. Implications for research and for addressing individual and institutional racism and classism are offered.