Troubled Youth Research Articles

"We Are Making Good under the Honor System": The Social Rehabilitation of Juvenile Males through Militarism, Moral Reform, and Enforced Work Routines at the British Columbia Boy's Industrial School, 1919–1934

Abstract: Industrial schools were the dominant mechanisms for the social rehabilitation of wayward juveniles in North America from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century. The research concerning such schools in shaping young lives is scattered within the historiography of youth. Girls were taught domestic skills and boys were trained in trades such as agriculture. Forced labor was not punishment but seen as moral uplift for troubled youth. This article studies the British Columbia Boy's Industrial School from 1919 to 1934 under David Blackwood Brankin, whose "honor system" combined discipline, strict work routines, regimented leisure, and a minimum of compulsory schooling. Brankin's court missionary work in Great Britain and military career shaped his vision of juvenile social rehabilitation until his retirement in 1934. His replacement was an educator trained in psychology and mental hygiene methods of youth reclamation.

Constructing troubled youth in Danish research

ABSTRACT This study explores how mental health and welfare issues among troubled youth were constructed by key research institutions in Denmark. We were curious about how dominant discourses affected our research and the discourses we were reproducing. A review of nine key reports concerning troubled youth from five Danish research institutions was therefore conducted based on a social constructionist approach. The reports employed different age ranges, designs and concepts to capture and construct troubled youth. We identified three overall discourses:1) a health, mental health and mental illness discourse with a rather individualized approach, 2) a broader discourse based on welfare, focusing on young person’s family, educational and relational context, and 3) a discourse where youth troubles were primarily framed in relation to structural conditions such as dependency on care services, or not being in employment, education, or training. The reports did not slot neatly into these categories. All the reports framed troubled youth in discourses relating to risk, though in different ways and with differing emphases. Thus, there appeared to be a dominant focus on risk factors. We discuss when dominant discourses regarding troubled youth will move beyond a risk focus and address access to youth interventions and the structural support systems available.

Improving the livelihoods of justice-involved youth: Study protocol for a replication and extension of Functional Family Therapy-Gangs

BackgroundThis study will evaluate Functional Family Therapy-Gangs (FFT-G), an extension of a family-based therapeutic intervention—Functional Family Therapy (FFT)—designed to help troubled youth exhibiting mild to severe behavior problems overcome delinquency, substance abuse, and violence. FFT-G, however, addresses risk factors that are typically more salient among gang than delinquent populations. A randomized control trial with adjudicated youth in Philadelphia revealed reductions in recidivism over an 18-month period. The purposes of this paper are to outline the protocol for replicating FFT-G in the Denver metropolitan area, document the design and challenges of the prospective research, and promote transparency. MethodsAs a condition of pre-trial or probation supervision, 400 youth/caregiver dyads will be randomly assigned to FFT-G or a treatment-as-usual control group. Preregistered confirmatory outcomes include recidivism (i.e., criminal/delinquent charges and adjudications/convictions) measured using official records (Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/abyfs). Secondary outcomes include measures of gang embeddedness, non-violent and violent recidivism, and substance use measured using interview-based surveys and arrest, revocation, incarceration, and crime type indicators of recidivism from official records. Exploratory mediation and moderation analyses are also planned. Intent-to-treat regression analyses will estimate intervention effects 18 months post-randomization. ConclusionThis study will contribute to advancing high-quality evidence-based knowledge on gang interventions for which there are few known effective responses.

‘Doing’ research relationships: reflections on a qualitative longitudinal project with young people leaving secure care

ABSTRACT In this article I reflect on research relationships in a qualitative longitudinal (QL) project from a relational perspective, understanding agency as interdependent and evolving. My reflections are based on a study involving repeated interviews over eight years with young people who have experienced secure care, which is the most intrusive form of intervention for troubled youths in the Swedish child welfare. Research using a QL methodology requires a delicate balance in maintaining professional boundaries in relationships between the researchers and participants and emphasizes how time and place are embedded in relations. I explore the complexities of research relationships over time and the effect of repeated research encounters on understandings of time. My reflections are grouped into three themes: emotional footing, intersections of time and place, and evolving research agencies. While emotions from early encounters became a resource for my reflections as a researcher, return interviews turned me into an embodiment of time, producing linear-time narratives of progress, and the agencies of both me and young people evolved within and beyond the research project. I offer some conclusions for qualitative social work research regarding the effects of emotional, temporal and spatial dimensions on researcher vulnerability and research relationships over time.

Impermanent Youthfulness Shown by Naaladiyar

Youth is not permanent, but changeable. It can change from adolescence to adulthood. Some people make mistakes and make fun of old people, forgetting that they may be getting old. Some people think that they can enjoy their youth and become virtuous in old age. They did not know that not only the old fruit but also the raw fruit would fall even in a strong wind. Youth is always active. Youth can do anything on a whim. There is nothing we can do when our body is weakened and our beauty fades away. Therefore, we should start practising virtues at a young age. We have to get rid of the actions that our hearts desire to go on the evil path, and we should go in search of merit. This will benefit us. The Jain text Naaladiyar expounds on many moral concepts necessary for life, such as carnal pleasure. It recommends that renunciation be the most important virtue. Virtuous people who are free from guilt cannot become virtuous in old age. So, we'll go over this research to see if there's anything we can do to help the troubled youth. So, let us not delay the time so that we, the youth, can practise virtue later. So, the purpose of this study is to do charity now itself.

Ferenczian Elasticity in the Analysis of an Adolescent.

Psychoanalytic work with adolescents poses a challenge for analysts who adhere to standard analytic technique as many adolescents who need analytic intervention resist such a structured approach to analysis. The author finds that elasticity of technique is currently widely used by analysts when working with this difficult age group even though they may be unaware that this is, in fact, a Ferenczian technique. Clinical examples are presented to illustrate how frequently the technique is used in cases of resistant, troubled youth. The author outlines an approach that is sensitive to these resistances and makes compromises in technique based on the principle that engaging a troubled youth in a therapeutic venture is preferable to refusing treatment based on the patient's not being able to adhere to standard analytic technique. In this sense, Ferenczi was an early herald of the type of contemporary analytic work that is practiced currently especially with a difficult population of patients.

Help or hindrance? Rethinking interventions with ‘troubled youth’

AbstractThis paper considers experiences of penal and voluntary-sector interventions in the lives of young people labelled as ‘troubled’ or ‘at risk’ of criminal behaviour. Drawing on data from a case-study conducted in the north of England, this paper focuses on the narratives of young people ‘on the margins’ of society who were involved with a range of community-based interventions, specifically youth clubs, a support group and a mandatory youth justice course. We consider how young people experience and respond to stigmatising elements prevalent in the structured interventions and everyday interactions with the institutions and agencies intended to support them. We argue that ‘promotive’ relationships between young people and the adults working with them enable young people to challenge risk-based identities and navigate the barriers they face.

Inclusion in American and Finnish Schools: The Neglect of Youth with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

ABSTRACT Youth with emotional and behavioural disorders (EBD) are guaranteed the same right to inclusive education as other students with and without disabilities. While Finland and the United States (U.S.) are committed to the ideals of inclusion, evidence suggests that these students are often excluded. This paper discusses Finnish and U.S policies and practices that identify and ‘push out’ youth with EBD. Additionally, the quality of education in exclusive settings, including Finnish reform schools, U.S. alternative schools and day treatment/residential psychiatric facility schools, as well as (juvenile) correctional facilities in both countries, are discussed. Recommendations are provided for policy and practice that will promote access to inclusive education for these troubled youth.

Toutes les bêtes sont mortelles par Claude Louis-Combet

Reviewed by: Toutes les bêtes sont mortelles par Claude Louis-Combet Joseph A. Reiter Louis-Combet, Claude. Toutes les bêtes sont mortelles. Corti, 2021. ISBN 978-2-7143-1248-8. Pp. 173. Animals have populated literature and imagery from the very beginnings of artistic expression, revealing a fascination, awe, and fear of the many species inhabiting the planet. Some creatures have taken on religious and symbolic meanings. Others mirror or satirize human behavior. In this collection of ten narratives, written between 1997 and 2021, Louis-Combet paints a world where animals are mostly victims of human cruelty and insensitivity. The tales are probing, nightmarish, erotic, filled with guilt and self-loathing. Some are from the world of fantasy. Others are autobiographical, mostly from the seminary years of the author. Louis-Combet abandoned a religious vocation but, as one sees in his writings, not an intense spiritual life. He studied philosophy, which he went on to teach, and is a prolific writer of fiction, and of art, literature, and photography criticism. He also developed pedagogy courses for troubled youth, perhaps influenced by his own adolescent conflicts, and continues to write at age eighty-eight. The first tale of the collection, "Le bœuf et la grenouille," misleads the reader, who expects a Rousseauist reinterpretation of fables. Louis-Combet invents an epilogue to La Fontaine, where the bœuf envies the size, color, beauty, and voice of the frog, resulting in his demise as he tries to imitate the amphibian: "il cria si fort qu'il en creva" (13). The second story, "Les larmes d'une truie," clearly states the intent and direction of the texts: "L'animal vivait dans la simplicité de sa nature. L'homme dans sa complexité de sa nature, dans sa dualité et sa duplicité. Lui seul avait le pouvoir de faire du mal" (18) and with that an intense feeling of sin, guilt and self-loathing, precisely what Louis-Combet experiences at the seminary. He desperately strives for purity and innocence through prayer, self-harm, walking, and through literature. Louis-Combet details his encounters with cats, insects, rabbits, or snakes, including the serpent represented in the statues of the virgin Mary. He recounts the slaughter of the seminary's pig, César, who had become the postulants' pet. The butchers, his priest teachers, have compelled him to collect the animal's blood, "tout au long du rituel de la mise à mort, le corps avait rayonné" (78). Equally disturbing and sadistic is a scout initiation scene, also overseen by a cleric, which includes the forced eating of a roasted snake, after which Louis-Combet is dubbed, ironically as the reader sees later, Cobra pacifique. The most fanciful piece in the collection is a dictated letter to the eccentric and mythomaniac English poet Algernon Swinburne (1837–1909) by the chimpanzee he claimed to have seduced. She, named Bloody Mary, recalls his Pygmalion-like efforts to humanize and beautify her, and thereafter the sorrows of abandonment: "Quand j'ai compris que vous ne reviendriez plus et que, plus jamais je ne vous verrais, je me suis mise à vieillir à toute allure" (135). The collection concludes with a previously published essay, fittingly, on the topic of writing about animals, a creative process, argues Louis-Combet, that inevitably exposes the truths of human existence. [End Page 269] Joseph A. Reiter Phillips Exeter Academy (NH), emeritus Copyright © 2021 American Association of Teachers of French

MAKKAH DISTRICT YOUTH DETENTION CENTER

A youth detention center aims to provide troubled youth of a chance to rehabilitation. In a community where there is a lack of facilities for youth, it is guaranteed that some youngsters will misbehave and need a place for disciple. A youth detention center will provide them with temporary accommodation and the required services and facilities. The designed service is effectively allows them to be better fit in the society. Few related case studies were conducted in terms of their program and zoning in order to develop a conclusive space distribution diagram. A site analysis is carried out to allocate an ideal land for the project. The site is analysed in terms of its criteria, accessibility, and location to find the right site fit for the project. The center is introduced in a society to guarantee that troubled children and adolescences are cared for and provided with different sorts of facilities that would strive to make them better to themselves and the society. Unlike a jail facility, the detention center is a small community where the goal is completely in the benefits of the young offenders.

Systemic Endangerment: A Tale of Neoliberal “Slumcare”

In this case study of neoliberal responsibilization (Garland 1996), I used grounded theory methods to explore practitioners’ experiences of Therapeutic Crisis Intervention at a for-profit, violence-prevention, group home for troubled youth. While previous research has shown that responsibilization can create spaces for on-the-ground resistance to post-welfarism and the reemergence of rehabilitative practices, this study shows that it can also lead to irresponsibly dangerous practices. As a result of this analysis, I introduce the concept of “slumcare” to capture a broad array of egregiously substandard behavioral-healthcare interventions that are provided throughout the United States in the name of crime prevention. While systemic endangerment is just one illustration of “slumcare,” I contend that three interrelated processes—priority corruption, a paper trail of propriety, and the evasion of criticism—explain how the neoliberal state enables a host of “slumcare practices”—including systemic endangerment—to persist beyond the walls of this particular site.

Adolescents Values Clarification and Development: A Model for Group Counseling

Youths involved with the juvenile justice and child welfare systems report higher rates of early initiation of sexual intercourse, more sexual partners, and lower rates of condom use compared with the general adolescent population. Such risky behaviors leave system-involved youths with volatile behavioral challenges and negative sexual health outcomes, such as unintended pregnancy. These effects can be attributed to detached support systems and a lack of early interventions, such as group therapy. This dynamic fosters further inquiry into asking, can delinquent teenagers who adopt a values clarification approach and understanding exhibit positive prosocial thoughts and behaviors? The intent of this paper is to discuss an alternative education program for pregnant, delinquent adolescents and young mothers allowed a social worker and his associates to implement a group counseling program. The counseling was intended to emphasize values clarification and values development. The counselors focused on attitudes, social views, and desired behaviors related to values. A unique aspect of the program was the development of a four-phase cognitive process related to values clarification and development. This process includes the discovery and awareness of values, the claiming and reclaiming of values, the acceptance of core values, and the appreciation and advocacy of the values phase. A content analysis methodology was used to analyze a self-report methods so that insights into cultural trends and experiences could be understood. Findings from the adoption of this program suggest a psychoeducation humanistic model can not only buffer teenage pregnancy risk and delinquency but also strengthen values and the moral development of troubled youth.

As Long as the Tree Blooms: A Short History of Frisian Literature by Joke Corporaal

history of his neighborhood. From there we’re led through a series of interrelated stories that together form a complex mosaic of hardships and transformations. In “Gotcha ,” a troubled youth gets a tattoo, which provokes beatings from junta-era police, feeding into his own fascinations with violence and a desire for more. In “Happiness Is a Sandwich,” a starving man finds a 5,000 drachmas note (something like 18 US dollars ), but no one will accept his money. A final solution, inspired by tactics used against Native Americans as well as various pest-control solutions, is proposed in horrific, dehumanizing apathy in “Another Night.” Meanwhile, the disinterested passenger cycles through emails on his mobile phone, distracted by spam and special offers, as the nationalist continues on. Throughout these several “chapters,” which are structured in a way that’s somewhat reminiscent of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, another book that’s a conversation in vignettes, the nationalist challenges the disinterested passenger with an assortment of economic, cultural, and authoritarian rationalizations for his beliefs. At the core of this pitch is Victoria, or Vic City, a neighborhood in Athens with disappearing boundaries and rapidly shifting demographics, and where the nationalist grew up. Even so, the book serves to inoculate the reader from such nativist appeal by identifying and engaging its various lures. While it can be a demanding read at times, Vic City Express is thoughtfully executed and occasionally melancholy, and readers familiar with Athenian culture may find unexpected humor in some of its passages . The translation by Fred A. Reed is more than capable, shifting styles and tones with ease while keeping its regional intricacies intact. Tsirbas has written a timely book here, one that’s also a convincing, localized tour of creeping fascism in Greece and the alarming conditions that are allowing it to take root. Michael Kazepis Portland, Oregon Joke Corporaal As Long as the Tree Blooms: A Short History of Frisian Literature Leeuwarden, Netherlands. Bornmeer. 2018. 143 pages. In 2018 tens of thousands of tourists from near and faraway places visited Leeuwarden on the occasion of its designation as the 2018 Cultural Capital of Europe. They discovered the province that makes the Netherlands bilingual. Visitors saw traffic signs in Frisian, heard the language spoken in stores and other public places, heard music and the news in Frisian if they tuned in to the Frisian broadcast station, and if they visited Tresoar , the provincial treasure house of Frisian literary history, they encountered a world of information: countless newspapers and magazines, hundreds of thousands of books including some books from the library of Erasmus, manuscripts and letters by famous Frisians, a manuscript of “Noctes Atticae” made by monks and dating back to 836 CE, the oldest and most recent Frisian literature, Esther Kinsky River Trans. Iain Galbraith Transit Books Showing the power of a walk by the waterside, this longlist candidate for the German Book Prize finally appears in English from one of Germany’s most fluid prose writers. As the narrator walks along the river to which she has moved under mysterious circumstances , she reminisces about the other rivers that she has drifted down in life. From its haunting first-page dedication, this novel will stay with you long after the last drop. Brice Matthieussent Revenge of the Translator Trans. Emma Ramadan Deep Vellum Brice Matthieussent is an award-winning translator of over two hundred novels from English to French; Revenge of the Translator is his debut novel. An intensely thrilling tale of intrigue and translation with a comedic undercurrent, the novel explores the transcendent power of obsessive dedication and the blurred lines between reality and text. Nota Bene WORLDLIT.ORG 95 and much, much more. They learned that there are some one hundred books published each year, comprising all the literary genres; that Frisian music includes classical , pop, folk, opera, hard rock, ballads, hymns, and more; that the more universal poetry by Frisian poets like Obe Postma and Tsjêbbe Hettinga has been translated into English; that best-selling prose authors like Rink van der Velde and Hylke Speerstra have been translated into English as well as Nynke van Hichtem’s classic children’s novel Afke’s Ten...

Economic evaluation of residential length of stay and long-term outcomes

ABSTRACTThe high cost of residential services for troubled youth is an ongoing concern, and has formed the basis for arguments made for reducing or eliminating residential services for these youth with some recommending that lengths of residential stay be less than 6 months. This is countered by the view that the challenges faced by troubled youth are associated with high public funds expenditures in the future due to limited education, underemployment, and increased risk of criminality. Analysis used 24 month follow-up education, employment, and criminality data from 1476 former residential care youth who were now in their 20s. Individuals who were in the program for more than 6 months had better educational, employment, and criminality outcomes than youth that were in the program for less than 6 months. These improved outcomes were associated with significantly better estimated financial societal benefit over the long-term, specifically a 361% return on investment from a societal perspective.

Pastoral juxtaposition in spiritual care: Towards a caregiving faith theology in an evangelical Christian context

The problem for many troubled youths seeking help within a Christian context is that their need for meaningful connections and spiritual growth is attached to relationships with their significant others. When needs of attachment are not adequately met due to the effect of an insecure attachment working model in a relationship with God, the teen may end up leaving the faith community seeking a new caregiver or regress into spiritual struggles, depression, anxiety, self-doubt and other negative emotions. This paper responds to the issues associated with youth attachment behaviour towards God using a caregiving theology (i.e. pastoral juxtaposition) that draws on the ‘power of two’ through incarnational creativity and pneumatological ecclesiology. This proposed theology first supplements the work of the pastoral counsellor to create a transformative container through which young people, already within a redemptive Christian community, can grow spiritually and deepen their relationship with God. Secondly, pastoral juxtaposition targeting the spiritual needs of hurting youths serves to create a magnet space within the church community that models incarnational love, pastoral care and support for young people by entering their world order to reframe their personal stories of grief, abandonment and insecurity through creative means. Finally, we theologise that pastoral juxtaposition also integrates the power of the Holy Spirit, as the ultimate caregiver in times of conflict, into each youth’s unique journey of faith and healing. Implications of this pastoral theology are discussed and applied to everyday life.

Crosswalk of published quality standards for residential care for children and adolescents

There is a growing emphasis on the need for quality in residential care programs for children and adolescents. This present review is an effort to determine what practices have been identified in published sources specifically focused on quality standards for residential care for children and adolescents. Published quality standards for residential care from seven organizations or government agencies were identified and included in the review. Sixty-five quality standards within 8 domains were identified, and a crosswalk table linking each standard to the seven source documents was produced. Overall there was a 72.5% agreement across the seven sources for the quality standards. The identified quality standards clearly show the common elements and multidimensional nature of quality issues for residential care for children and adolescents. It is imperative that a comprehensive approach to, and measurement of, quality standards become pervasive and fully integrated into the services provided to troubled youth and their families.

Medicaid waivers and public sector mental health service penetration rates for youth.

To assist families of youth with serious emotional disturbance in financing youth's comprehensive care, some states have sought and received Medicaid waivers. Medicaid waivers waive or relax the Medicaid means test for eligibility to provide insurance coverage to nonpoor families for expensive, otherwise out-of-reach treatment for youth with Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED). Waivers promote treatment access for the most troubled youth, and the present study investigated whether any of several Medicaid waiver options-and those that completely omit the means test in particular-are associated with higher state-wide public sector treatment penetration rates. The investigators obtained data from the U.S. Census, SAMHSA's Uniform Reporting System, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Analysis employed random intercept and random slope linear regression models, controlling for a variety of state demographic and fiscal variables, to determine whether a relationship between Medicaid waiver policies and state-level public sector penetration rates could be observed. Findings indicate that, whether relaxing or completely waiving Medicaid's qualifying income limits, waivers increase public sector penetration rates, particularly for youth under age 17. However, completely waiving Medicaid income limits did not uniquely contribute to penetration rate increases. States offering Medicaid waivers that either relax or completely waive Medicaid's means test to qualify for health coverage present higher public sector treatment rates for youth with behavioral health care needs. There is no evidence that restricting the program to waiving the means test for accessing Medicaid would increase treatment access. (PsycINFO Database Record

Sorry to Disrupt the Peace by Patty Yumi Cottrell

Reviewed by: Sorry to Disrupt the Peace by Patty Yumi Cottrell Clancy McGilligan Patty Yumi Cottrell. Sorry to Disrupt the Peace. McSweeney's, 2017. Patty Yumi Cottrell's writing has been compared to that of Thomas Bernhard, and while she has acknowledged her debt to the tirade-inclined Austrian writer in her use of repetition, her voice is very much her own. Her debut novel, Sorry to Disrupt the Peace, is narrated by a manic, incisive and frequently hilarious thirty-two-year-old woman named Helen Moran. Adopted with her brother from Korea, Helen has fled the Midwest and now lives in New York City. Unlike in traditional adoptee narratives, she has no interest in her biological parents. And unlike more conventional narrators, she heaps vitriol on a variety of targets. After she describes biting off the tongue of a drunken man who attempts to kiss her: "I was fine with genitalia in my face and blow jobs and spitting out their sperm, I was fine with rimming, I made my peace with it, and I was so angry." Or when she rages against her adoptive parents: "The two white people raised their Asian children to think Asian art was decorative: Oriental rugs and vases! Jade elephants! Enamel chopsticks!" Sorry to Disrupt the Peace is structured, loosely, as a detective story. At the start, Helen learns her adoptive brother has committed suicide in suburban Milwaukee, where they grew up together. After a prolonged bout of sobbing—here, as elsewhere, the novel consciously repurposes the stereotype of the hysterical woman—she leaves her shared studio apartment in New York City and returns to her childhood home. Her stated goal: to serve as a "supportive beam of light" for her adoptive parents while she conducts a "metaphysical investigation" into the death. What results is an interior, voice-driven novel that deftly uses black humor to explore Helen's shock and grief. As a caretaker of troubled youth, Helen's nickname is Sister Reliability. However, it quickly becomes clear she is anything but reliable. Her erratic investigation unfolds in the days before her adoptive brother's funeral (the adjective "adoptive" always prefaces the mention of her brother or parents, distancing them from her). For much of the novel's 43 short chapters, she combs through her memories for clues. She tells us: "Everything in my memory was significant in relation to his suicide." In other parts, she interacts tensely or awkwardly with her adoptive parents, who sometimes seem only slightly less unhinged than Helen herself, and to whom she has not spoken in years. She also encounters various old acquaintances, such as the grief counselor Chad Lambo ("Lambo" an echo of Wisconsin's Lambeau Field), all of whom fade quickly into the background. Meanwhile, she hallucinates a balding European man who she suspects embodies her parents' grief. The novel loses some momentum in the middle sections, when Helen's memories dominate, but Cottrell's writing is consistently memorable and sharp, and her narrator offers a febrile, almost lunatic energy; the frantic and surreal quality of some passages recalls the work of authors such as Franz Kafka and Robert Walser. Preoccupied by what she calls the "abyss," Helen's also fascinated by the mutability of what constitutes an ethical position. Accordingly, she gives marijuana to her troubled youth and, like her adoptive brother, secretly writes checks using their adoptive father's checkbook ("It's all the same money, I thought, isn't it?"). Filled with loathing and disgust, she prefers to be a "detached observer/receiver." When she does act, it often has negative consequences, such as when she puts flowers for the funeral in buckets that happen to be filled with bleach. The possibility of Helen finding answers in her investigation seems remote, yet Cottrell offers a compelling conclusion that includes a long monologue from Helen's adoptive father and a revelation that interrogates the usual understanding of suicide. It's a fitting end to this intelligent and original debut. [End Page 28] Copyright © 2018 Pleiades and Pleiades Press

Positive and Negative Peer Influence in Residential Care.

The potential for negative peer influence has been well established in research, and there is a growing interest in how positive peer influence also impacts youth. No research, however, has concurrently examined positive and negative peer influence in the context of residential care. Clinical records for 886 residential care youth were used in a Hierarchical Linear Model analysis to examine the impact of negative and positive peer influence on naturally occurring patterns of serious problem behavior over time. Negative peer influence, where the majority of youth in a home manifested above the average number of serious behavior problems, occurred 13.7% of the time. Positive peer influence, where the majority of youth manifested no serious problem behaviors for the month, occurred 47.7% of the time. Overall, youth problem behavior improved over time. There were significantly lower rates of serious problem behavior in target youth during positive peer influence months. Conversely, there were significantly higher rates of serious problem behaviors in target youth during negative peer influence months. Negative peer influence had a relatively greater impact on target peers' serious behavior problems than did positive peer influence. Caregiver experience significantly reduced the impact of negative peer influence, but did not significantly augment positive peer influence. Months where negative peer influence was combined with inexperienced caregivers produced the highest rates of serious problem behavior. Our results support the view that residential programs for troubled youth need to create circumstances that promote positive and control for negative peer influence.

Influencing Positive Outcomes For Troubled Youth

The BHB Theory (Haggis, 2011) is based on an empirical case study that examined teachers’ perceptions of what they do in their educational settings to create a positive learning environment for troubled youth in their classrooms. Research - including this study - indicates a need for transformational change in how teachers interrelate with students in education environments intended for at risk-youth. Traditionally, approaches to working with troubled youth have been punitive in design. Research indicates that this approach is counterproductive and that teachers have the opportunity to build capacity for success with at risk-youth through the use of peers; building social competencies; role modeling; relationship building; setting high expectations and fostering student strengths. Understanding what effective teachers working with troubled youth do to create a positive learning environment in their classrooms is critical for identifying factors that influence a positive outcome for students in such programs. The descriptive case study described utilized a mixed methods approach using teachers within two residential schools. The BHB study’s data analysis discovered that there was significant agreement among the teacher participants of the study about factors perceived as strongly influential in creating a positive learning environment for their students. Consistent with prior research, these factors included providing a classroom atmosphere that supports positive peer relationships, setting high expectations for student success, encouraging students to take responsibility for their own actions, strong relationship building and generating an environment of trust and respect. Recommendations for strengthening teacher practice are offered.