Date SMART's Impact on Aggression in System Involved Girls: Does Victimization Moderate Effects?

Aggression and victimization increase negative outcomes for legal system involved girls. While aggression is often enacted against multiple targets (e.g.

Perspectives from Systems-Level Key Informants on Optimizing Opioid Use Disorder Treatment for Adolescents and Young Adults.

Rates of receiving opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment among adolescents and young adults (AYA) aged 16-25 are low. The current study qualitatively analyzed informants' perspectives regarding the availability of, developmental considerations relevant to, and barriers associated with OUD treatment for AYA. : Thirty key informants involved with OUD treatment in the northeastern United States completed individual, semi-structured interviews, including treatment providers (N = 11) and clinic leaders in programs that provide medication and psychosocial treatments for AYA with OUD (N = 10), as well as opioid-related policymakers (N = 6) and patient advocates (N = 3).

Mental Health, Substance Use, Trauma Exposure, and Experiences of Discrimination Among Caregivers of Youth With Juvenile Legal System Involvement.

Family-focused interventions for youth with juvenile legal system involvement place emphasis on improving caregiver wellbeing. However, there is limited work to date characterizing the prevalence and determinants of behavioral health concerns among these caregivers. The present study sought to examine among 100 caregivers of youth with juvenile legal system involvement: (a) rates of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and cannabis and alcohol use; (b) frequency of exposure to traumatic events and discrimination; and (c) the association between experiences of traumatic events and discrimination and behavioral health concerns.

Youth with Behavioral Health Symptoms in the Juvenile Legal System: From Assessment of Needs to Interventions to Scalability.

This article provides an overview of the current state of assessment and clinical intervention approaches for youth with juvenile legal system (JLS) involvement. The review includes () a brief overview of characteristics of youth with JLS involvement; () current screening and assessment frameworks within the JLS that identify treatment needs; () an overview of effective clinical interventions for common behavioral health concerns among youth with JLS involvement, including information about tailoring interventions to address the multiple intersecting identities (e.g.

Provider perceptions of systems-level barriers and facilitators to utilizing family-based treatment approaches in adolescent and young adult opioid use disorder treatment.

Background: Amidst increasing opioid-related fatalities in adolescents and young adults (AYA), there is an urgent need to enhance the quality and availability of developmentally appropriate, evidence-based treatments for opioid use disorder (OUD) and improve youth engagement in treatment. Involving families in treatment planning and therapy augments medication-based OUD treatment for AYA by increasing treatment engagement and retention. Yet, uptake of family-involved treatment for OUD remains low.

Piloting an Evidence-Based Assessment Protocol for Incarcerated Adolescents.

Although evidence-based assessment is considered an essential component of evidence-based practice, few adolescents have access to evidence-based assessment. Despite experiencing high rates of mental health disorders, incarcerated justice-involved adolescents are rarely able to access evidence-based psychiatric care. In this article, we discuss the components of an evidence-based assessment protocol designed and piloted with incarcerated adolescents involved in Rhode Island's juvenile justice system.

Youth Dually-Involved in the Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Systems: Varying Definitions and Their Associations with Trauma Exposure, Posttraumatic Stress, & Offending.

Recently, scholars have placed increasing effort on better understanding the unique needs of youth involved in both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. This study drew from the Developmental Cascade of Multisystem Involvement Framework to examine group differences in trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and offending among youth solely involved in the juvenile justice system and youth with varying degrees of dual-system involvement, including crossover youth (i.e.

The intersection of adverse childhood experiences and mental health concerns for youth involved in the child welfare system.

The present study sought to identify if there is distinct mental health symptomology among child welfare-involved youth depending on the category of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) endorsed. A chart review of child welfare-involved youth (N = 129, ages 8-16) and caregiver reported ACEs and mental health/trauma symptoms was conducted. A K-means cluster analysis used ACE scores to identify groups of youth along two dimensions: household dysfunction and child abuse/neglect.

A Pilot Study of a Tablet-Based Emotion Regulation Intervention for Early Adolescents.

Objective: This study examined the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary outcomes of internet-based Talking About Risk and Adolescent Choices (iTRAC), a tablet intervention designed to promote emotion regulation (ER) skills among middle schoolers as a strategy for reducing risk behaviors.

Methods: Adolescents (12-14 years) were recruited from 3 urban US schools for advisory groups (n = 15), acceptability testing (n = 11), and pilot testing (n = 85). Youth advisory boards and expert panels tailored content, resulting in an animated intervention of instructional videos, games, and activities designed to teach ER strategies to young adolescents.

The Effect of Sexual Concerns on Placement Changes and School Transfers for Youth in the Child Welfare System.

Youths in the child welfare system experience high rates of placement changes and school transfers; therefore, prior research focused on variables that may be linked with such disruptions. Indeed, researchers have established that mental health symptoms (e.g.

Advancing Our Understanding of the Risk Factors Associated with Crossover Youth in the Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Systems: A Trauma-Informed Research Agenda.

Previous research has provided robust evidence demonstrating that a notable proportion of youth become involved in both the child welfare (CW) system and the juvenile justice (JJ) system, a population often referred to as crossover youth. Prior work has identified a number of risk factors associated with crossing over between these systems. However, there are limitations to the extant literature, key among which is a lack of systematic attention to the influence of trauma exposure and posttraumatic sequelae on the crossover trajectory.

A Bayesian Structural Equation Modeling Factor Analysis of the UCLA Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Reaction Index for DSM-5 in a Polyvictimized Sample of Adolescents.

The revised criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the fifth edition of the necessitated the development of new screening tools for youth, one of the most widely used of which is the UCLA Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Reaction Index for DSM-5 (RI-5). Thus far, the few studies that have investigated the RI-5's factor structure have supported a four-factor model. However, to date this research has been limited to youth with histories of exposure to single-event traumatic stressors, a significant limitation as evidence suggests many trauma-exposed youth report exposure to multiple types of traumatic stressors, or polyvictimization.

Associations Among Trauma Exposure, Posttraumatic Dissociation, Reckless/Self-Destructive Behavior, and Adolescent Offending.

Previous research has established that trauma exposure and subsequent posttraumatic stress symptoms confer risk for adolescent offending and involvement in the juvenile justice system. However, recent research and theory have called attention to the contributions of specific posttraumatic reactions, including posttraumatic dissociation (PD) and reckless or self-destructive behavior (RSDB), to offending behavior among adolescents. Therefore, this study investigated direct and indirect associations among trauma exposure, PD, RSDB, and offending in a sample of justice-involved adolescents.

Victimization profiles in girls involved in the juvenile justice system: A latent class analysis.

Background: Previous research has demonstrated that youth involved in the juvenile justice system endorse diverse patterns of victimization. However, previous research investigating victimization profiles among youth involved in the juvenile justice system has primarily consisted of boys.

Objective: This study investigated victimization profiles and correlates of victimization exposure, including posttraumatic stress symptoms and risk behaviors, in a sample of girls involved in the juvenile justice system.

Investigating the Association Between Posttraumatic Risky Behavior and Offending in Adolescents Involved in the Juvenile Justice System.

Risky behavior is common among traumatized youth and is associated with juvenile offending. This study examined predictors of posttraumatic risky behavior, the unique contribution of posttraumatic risky behavior in predicting offending, and tested whether a distinct class of youth was characterized by high levels of posttraumatic risky behavior. Participants were 400 adolescents (25% girls) between the ages of 12 and 19 years old (M = 15.

Intimate Partner Violence in Adolescence: Associations With Perpetration Trauma, Rumination, and Posttraumatic Stress.

Engagement in intimate partner violence (IPV) is related to a host of negative outcomes for youth, including posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). Moreover, research indicates that the perpetration of violence may constitute a traumatic experience, termed perpetration trauma (PT), which, in turn, is related to elevated levels of PTSS. Little research to date, however, has illuminated the underlying processes that may link IPV perpetration, PT, and PTSS.

Polyvictimization, Emotion Dysregulation, Symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and Behavioral Health Problems among Justice-Involved Youth: a Latent Class Analysis.

Among the 90% of adolescents involved in juvenile justice who have experienced traumatic victimization, a sub-group may be at highest risk due to histories of multiple types of interpersonal and non-interpersonal trauma, termed polyvictims. Latent class analyses (LCA) have identified polyvictimized subgroups in several studies of adolescents and adults, but only one study of traumatic victimization has been conducted with justice-involved youth (Ford et al. 2013).

Testing gender-differentiated models of the mechanisms linking polyvictimization and youth offending: Numbing and callousness versus dissociation and borderline traits.

The increasing prevalence of girls in the juvenile justice system suggests the importance of examining whether models of adolescent offending are differentiated by gender. Polyvictimization has emerged as a robust predictor of youth justice involvement, especially for girls, and research exploring mechanisms underlying the link between polyvictimization and offending suggests further gender differences in that callous-unemotional (CU) traits have been implicated in samples of boys whereas borderline personality (BP) traits have been implicated amongst girls. However, a limitation of these studies is that most have included all-male or all-female samples, thus not allowing for comparisons across gender.

PTSD and dissociation symptoms as mediators of the relationship between polyvictimization and psychosocial and behavioral problems among justice-involved adolescents.

Polyvictimization (PV) has been shown to be associated with psychosocial and behavioral impairment in community and high risk populations, including youth involved in juvenile justice. However, the mechanisms accounting for these adverse outcomes have not been empirically delineated. Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and dissociation are documented sequelae of PV and are associated with a wide range of behavioral/emotional problems.

The roles of trauma exposure, rejection sensitivity, and callous-unemotional traits in the aggressive behavior of justice-involved youth: A moderated mediation model.

Research has demonstrated an association between childhood trauma exposure and adolescent aggression. This association may be explained by rejection sensitivity, defined as anger, or anxiety in the anticipation of rejection, which can be a consequence of trauma exposure. Callous-unemotional (CU) traits also are associated with trauma exposure and aggressive behavior; however, research has not yet investigated the interactive roles that rejection sensitivity and CU traits play in the relation between trauma exposure and aggression.

Screening for PTSD among detained adolescents: Implications of the changes in the DSM-5.

Objective: Screening for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is highly relevant for youth involved in the juvenile justice system given their high rates of trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress symptoms. However, to date, no studies have investigated the implications of the recent revisions to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (5th ed., DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013) diagnostic criteria for PTSD for screening in this population.

Validation of the factor structure of the adolescent dissociative experiences scale in a sample of trauma-exposed detained youth.

Objective: The inclusion of a dissociative subtype in the (5th ed.; ) criteria for the diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has highlighted the need for valid and reliable measures of dissociative symptoms across developmental periods. The Adolescent Dissociative Experiences Scale (A-DES) is 1 of the few measures validated for young persons, but previous studies have yielded inconsistent results regarding its factor structure.

Numbing of Positive, Negative, and General Emotions: Associations With Trauma Exposure, Posttraumatic Stress, and Depressive Symptoms Among Justice-Involved Youth.

Increasing attention has been drawn to the symptom of emotional numbing in the phenomenology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), particularly regarding its implications for maladaptive outcomes in adolescence such as delinquent behavior. One change in the definition of emotional numbing according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) was the limitation to the numbing of positive emotions.