Assessment of Strengths in Criminal Justice System-Impacted Youth: A Retrospective Validation Study of the SAPROF-YV.

The Structured Assessment of Protective Factors for Violence Risk-Youth Version (SAPROF-YV; de Vries Robbé et al., 2015) was designed specifically to assess strengths as a complement to risk assessment tools. We retrospectively examined its reliability and validity in 305 Canadian community-sentenced youth, both in the overall sample and in male and female, and Black and White, subgroups. In all groups, the total score had strong internal consistency, inter-rater reliability, and convergent validity, and significantly predicted general recidivism at 3-year fixed follow-up. The SAPROF-YV showed incremental validity over the YLS/CMI only in Black youth. In the total sample, a moderation effect was identified whereby strengths were protective at lower levels of risk but not for moderate or high risk youth. The SAPROF-YV shows promising reliability and validity; however, more research is needed before clear guidance can be provided regarding the use of this measure in clinical practice.

PROTOCOL: Risk and strength factors that predict criminal conduct among under-represented genders and sexual minorities: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

This is the protocol for a Campbell systematic review. The objective of this review is to synthesize the evidence to identify risk and strength factors that predict the criminal offending in underrepresented genders and sexual minorities.

The Relationship Between Trauma, Recidivism Risk, and Reoffending in Male and Female Juvenile Offenders.

Elevated rates of traumatic experience in the juvenile justice population are well established. Nevertheless, the role of trauma and its application to rehabilitation and recidivism in a criminal justice context remains hotly debated, particularly for female youth. The Risk-Need-Responsivity framework, the predominant model for risk assessment and case management in juvenile justice, does not consider trauma to be a risk factor for offending. This study examined- Posttraumatic Stress symptomology, maltreatment history, and childhood adversity - in relation to RNR risk factors for reoffending (criminogenic needs) and recidivism in a sample of female and male juvenile offenders. Rates of PTS symptomology, maltreatment, and childhood adversity were significantly higher in this sample compared to prevalence in the general population. Females were more likely to have experienced maltreatment. Several maltreatment and childhood adversity types were significantly related to criminogenic needs. PTS symptomology and adversity were not significant predictors of recidivism when entered alongside criminogenic needs; however, maltreatment was the strongest predictor of recidivism for both male and female youth in a model that included criminogenic needs. Gender did not moderate the relationship between maltreatment and recidivism. The importance of considering youths' maltreatment history in their rehabilitative care is discussed.

Behavior Problems and Psychiatric Diagnoses in Girls with Gender Identity Disorder: A Follow-Up Study.

This study evaluated the presence of clinical range behavior problems and psychiatric diagnoses in 25 girls referred for gender identity disorder (GID) in childhood (mean age: 8.88 years) at the time of follow-up in adolescence or adulthood (mean age: 23.2 years). At follow-up, three (12%) of the girls were judged to have persistent GID based on DSM-IV criteria. With regard to behavior problems at follow-up, 39.1% of the girls had a clinical range score on either the Child Behavior Checklist or Adult Behavior Checklist as rated by their mothers, and 33.3% had a clinical range score on either the Youth Self-Report or the Adult Self-Report. On either the Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents or the Diagnostic Interview Schedule, the girls had, on average, 2.67 diagnoses (range: 0-10); 46% met criteria for three or more diagnoses. From the childhood assessment, five variables were significantly associated with a composite Psychopathology Index (PI) at follow-up: a lower IQ, living in a non-two-parent or reconstituted family, a composite behavior problem index, and poor peer relations. At follow-up, degree of concurrent homoeroticism and a composite index of gender dysphoria were both associated with the composite PI. Girls with GID show a psychiatric vulnerability at the time of follow-up in late adolescence or adulthood, although there was considerable variation in their general well-being.

The role of mental health and specific responsivity in juvenile justice rehabilitation.

Understanding the role that mental health issues play in justice-involved youth poses challenges for research, policy, and practice. While mental health problems are generally not risk factors for criminal behavior according to the risk-needs-responsivity (RNR) framework of correctional psychology practice, prevalence rates are very high and RNR principles suggest that mental health as a responsivity variable may moderate the success of interventions targeted to criminogenic needs. In this study we investigated the relationships among mental health status, criminogenic needs treatment, and recidivism in a sample of 232 youth referred for court-ordered assessments and followed through their community supervision sentence (probation). Youth with mental health needs were no more likely than youth without these needs to reoffend, regardless of whether those needs were treated. Youth who received mental health treatment also more frequently had their criminogenic needs matched across several domains, suggesting an association between mental health treatment and intermediate treatment targets. However, mental health did not moderate the effect of criminogenic needs treatment: youth who had a greater proportion of criminogenic needs targeted through appropriate services were less likely to reoffend, regardless of mental health status. Findings are consistent with the RNR stance that, within a correctional context in which the primary goal of intervention is preventing recidivism, treatment for mental health needs should be in addition to criminogenic needs treatment, not in replacement of it. They also point to the need for continued research to understand precisely how mental health treatment interacts with intervention targeting criminogenic needs. (PsycINFO Database Record

A theoretical evaluation of a youth mental health court program model.

Mental health courts are a promising new approach to addressing the overrepresentation of mental health needs among offender populations, yet little is known about how they facilitate change, particularly for youth. The current study reports on a process evaluation of a youth mental health court in Toronto, Canada. Drawing upon observations of the court and interviews with key informants, we developed a program model of the court and explored its implementation within the context of empirical evidence for treating justice-involved youth. Findings revealed that the proposed mechanism of change, which focuses on reducing recidivism through the treatment of mental health needs, should also consider factors directly related to offending behavior. Findings further highlight several strengths of the program, including the program's supportive environment and ability to engage and link youth and families with treatment. Areas for continued growth include the need for comprehensive protections of legal rights.

The relationship between psychosocial features of emerging adulthood and substance use change motivation in youth.

Despite the peak prevalence of substance use and comorbid mental health problems during emerging adulthood little research has focused on understanding behavior change processes during this transitional period. This study extended Arnett's (2004) theory of the psychosocial features of emerging adulthood to explore how they may relate to treatment motivation (e.g., readiness to comply with treatment) and motivation to change (e.g., problem recognition and taking steps towards change). One hundred sixty-four youth presenting to outpatient substance abuse treatment completed questionnaires investigating problematic substance use, mental health, psychosocial features of emerging adulthood and motivation. Results of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that youth who perceived themselves as having greater responsibility towards others were more intrinsically motivated, recognized their substance use as problematic and were taking steps towards change. None of the other dimensions of emerging adulthood accounted for significant variance beyond relevant controls. Limitations, directions for future research and treatment implications are discussed.

Consent to treatment in adolescents with anorexia nervosa.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the ability of adolescents with anorexia nervosa (AN) to make treatment decisions. METHOD: The MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool-Treatment (MacCAT-T) was used to compare the decision making abilities of 35 adolescents with AN who were receiving inpatient treatment with that of 40 healthy, community-based adolescents. Vignettes of both a medical and psychiatric illness were provided, requiring participants to work through the process of making a hypothetical treatment decision. The MacCAT-T was also administered to participants with AN to examine decision-making about their own illness, which allowed for comparison of competencies across contexts. RESULTS: Group differences were found, with the community group showing superior reasoning skills to the adolescents with AN. DISCUSSION: The results provide evidence to suggest that adolescents with AN tend toward a thinking disposition that is concrete and lacking in abstract reasoning and reflection, which may negatively affect their ability to reason about treatment options.

Understanding motivation for substance use treatment: the role of social pressure during the transition to adulthood.

Research has shown that social pressure is related to treatment motivation and plays an important role in treatment engagement in adults with problematic substance use. Despite the shifts in autonomy and decision-making in emerging adulthood, the factors affecting treatment motivation (e.g., readiness to comply with treatment) during this period have been largely ignored. In this cross sectional study, 134 youth (83 males and 51 females) presenting to an outpatient substance abuse program completed questionnaires regarding substance use history, mental health, social pressure to reduce use and enter treatment, and treatment motivation. Age was positively related to identification of internal reasons for seeking treatment and negatively related to external coercive social pressures as a motivator for treatment. Peer pressure accounted for significant variance in Identified (e.g., personal choice and commitment to the program) and Introjected (e.g., guilt about continued substance use) treatment motivation. Family pressure was related only to External treatment motivation when peer pressure was considered in the regression model. These results highlight the importance of emerging adult peers as motivators of youths' treatment seeking. Limitations, directions for future research and treatment implications are discussed.

Interdisciplinary knowledge translation: lessons learned from a mental health: fire service collaboration.

Collaborative approaches are being increasingly advocated for addressing a variety of health, mental health and social needs for children, youth and families. Factors important for effective knowledge translation of collaborative approaches of service delivery across disciplines, however, have not been rigorously examined. TAPP-C: The Arson Prevention Program for Children is an intervention program for child and adolescent firesetters provided collaboratively by fire service and mental health professionals. The present study examined the adopter, innovation, and dissemination characteristics associated with TAPP-C implementation, protocol adherence and extent of collaboration by 241 community-based fire service professionals from communities across Ontario. Results revealed that dissemination factors are particularly important for understanding program implementation, adherence and cross-discipline collaboration. Moreover, the findings of this study show significant benefits to both within discipline (intra-disciplinary) and across discipline (interdisciplinary) knowledge translation strategies.

The gender identity/gender dysphoria questionnaire for adolescents and adults: further validity evidence.

This study aimed to provide further validity evidence for the dimensional measurement of gender identity and gender dysphoria in both adolescents and adults. Adolescents and adults with gender identity disorder (GID) were compared to clinical control (CC) adolescents and adults on the Gender Identity/Gender Dysphoria Questionnaire for Adolescents and Adults (GIDYQ-AA), a 27-item scale originally developed by Deogracias et al. (2007). In Study 1, adolescents with GID (n = 44) were compared to CC adolescents (n = 98); and in Study 2, adults with GID (n = 41) were compared to CC adults (n = 94). In both studies, clients with GID self-reported significantly more gender dysphoria than did the CCs, with excellent sensitivity and specificity rates. In both studies, degree of self-reported gender dysphoria was significantly correlated with recall of cross-gender behavior in childhood-a test of convergent validity. The research and clinical utility of the GIDYQ-AA is discussed, including directions for further research in distinct clinical populations.

The Pictorial Fire Stroop: a measure of processing bias for fire-related stimuli.

Fire interest is a risk factor for firesetting. This study tested whether a fire-specific emotional Stroop task can effectively measure an information-processing bias for fire-related stimuli. Clinic-referred and nonreferred adolescents (aged 13-16 years) completed a pictorial "Fire Stroop," as well as a self-report fire interest questionnaire and several control tasks. Results showed (a) comparatively greater fire-specific attentional bias among referred adolescent firesetters, (b) a negative relationship between Fire Stroop attentional bias and self-reported fire interest, and (c) positive correspondence between Fire Stroop attentional bias and self-reported firesetting frequency. These findings suggest that instruments that measure an automatic bias for fire-specific stimuli may usefully supplement self-report measures in the assessment and understanding of firesetting behavior.

Troubled meditations on psychosexual differentiation: reply to Hegarty (2009).

P. Hegarty (see record 2009-09998-015) offered several critiques of the articles by G. Rieger, J. A. W. Linsenmeier, L. Gygax, and J. M. Bailey (see record 2007-19851-006) and K. D. Drummond, S. J. Bradley, M. Peterson-Badali, and K. J. Zucker (see record 2007-19851-005) that were published in a Developmental Psychology special section entitled "Sexual Orientation Across the Lifespan," guest-edited by C. J. Patterson and R. C. Savin-Williams (2008): (a) reliance on a "disease paradigm" (i.e., the use of "medicalizing" language) of lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender issues at the expense of a "stigma paradigm," (b) endorsement of a developmental linkage between childhood sex-typed behavior and later gender identity-sexual orientation, and (c) various sociophilosophical and applied matters pertaining to the diagnosis of gender identity disorder in children. In this reply, we address these 3 criticisms and argue that an interdisciplinary approach, informed by multiple paradigms, will most certainly facilitate, not impede, the discovery of answers to many questions about psychosexual development for which data are currently lacking.

A follow-up study of girls with gender identity disorder.

This study provided information on the natural histories of 25 girls with gender identity disorder (GID). Standardized assessment data in childhood (mean age, 8.88 years; range, 3-12 years) and at follow-up (mean age, 23.24 years; range, 15-36 years) were used to evaluate gender identity and sexual orientation. At the assessment in childhood, 60% of the girls met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders criteria for GID, and 40% were subthreshold for the diagnosis. At follow-up, 3 participants (12%) were judged to have GID or gender dysphoria. Regarding sexual orientation, 8 participants (32%) were classified as bisexual/homosexual in fantasy, and 6 (24%) were classified as bisexual/homosexual in behavior. The remaining participants were classified as either heterosexual or asexual. The rates of GID persistence and bisexual/homosexual sexual orientation were substantially higher than base rates in the general female population derived from epidemiological or survey studies. There was some evidence of a "dosage" effect, with girls who were more cross-sex typed in their childhood behavior more likely to be gender dysphoric at follow-up and more likely to have been classified as bisexual/homosexual in behavior (but not in fantasy).

Closing the research-practice gap: factors affecting adoption and implementation of a children's mental health program.

Despite the availability of effective interventions, they are not widely used in community mental health centers. This study examined the adoption and implementation of The Arson Prevention Program for Children (TAPP-C), a program for juvenile firesetters developed at a teaching hospital and disseminated to community settings. Questionnaire data from mental health professionals were used to evaluate the roles of adopter, innovation, and dissemination characteristics in TAPP-C adoption and implementation. Results indicate that different factors are important at different diffusion stages. Moreover, they suggest that innovation characteristics may be particularly important to adoption, whereas adopter and dissemination characteristics may be more influential in implementation.

The relationship between maternal attitudes and young people's attitudes toward children's rights.

Relations between maternal socio-political attitudes and parenting style and young people's and mothers' attitudes toward young people's nurturance and self-determination rights were examined. Both young people (n = 121) and mothers (n = 67) were more supportive of nurturance than self-determination rights, although young people were more supportive than their mothers of self-determination rights and mothers were more supportive than young people of nurturance rights. Maternal conservatism was unrelated to young people's support for rights and negatively related to mothers' support for both types of rights. Last, young people who perceived their mother to be either authoritarian or uninvolved showed stronger endorsement of self-determination rights than young people who perceived their mother to be authoritative. The implications of these findings for the development of young people's attitudes toward rights within the context of various family factors are discussed. In particular, it is suggested that a balance needs to be achieved between assertion of rights and a respect for the rights of others.

The verdict on jury trials for juveniles: the effects of defendant's age on trial outcomes.

With the progression to more adult-like policies and procedures for youth in the justice system, the right to a jury trial has been extended to young offenders. These youth would not be tried by a jury of their peers, however, but by a jury of adults. The concern is that adult jurors may hold negative attitudes about youth that might influence their decision making in a case involving a young defendant. Two studies examined whether and under what conditions defendant's age affects jurors' decisions about the guilt and sentencing of an accused. In study 1, data were gathered from two samples of jury eligible adults: one university sample and one public sample. Mock jurors read written transcripts of a trial involving a defendant who was presented as either 13, 17, or 25 years of age. Results indicated that the defendant's age had no effect on mock jurors' verdict or their ratings of defendant guilt. However, younger defendants were granted shorter sentences than the adult defendants. In study 2, mock jurors read the same trial presented in study 1 but were asked to deliberate about the case and render group verdicts. These group verdicts did not differ significantly by defendant's age. Age-related themes that emerged from group deliberations were identified, and results indicated that age tended to be used as a mitigating factor in favor of youth rather than against them. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for youth justice policy and practice.

A New Scale to Assess Culture-Specific Beliefs and Attitudes about Epilepsy.

A new rating scale to assess cultural diversity in North American people's understanding of epilepsy was developed and its psychometric properties were evaluated. The content of the scale was based on the hypotheses that cultural diversity and experience with epilepsy would be associated with differences in people's beliefs and attitudes about epilepsy. The sample, 117 Caucasians, 71 South Asians, and 40 East Asians, was drawn from a larger study. All participants had completed the newscale, Epilepsy Beliefs and Attitudes Scale (EBAS). Cronbach's coefficient alpha for the items in the scale was 0.85. A method of principal-axis factor analysis yielded three factors which were referred to as the Neurological, Enviro-psycho-physical, and Metaphysical subscales to emphasize the underlying themes of beliefs and attitudes they represented. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed a significant main effect for culture (P < 0.0001), epilepsy status (Caucasians only) (P < 0.007), and epilepsy familiarity group (P < 0.002). Further analysis was conducted between demographic variables, culture, and participants' subscale scores. Results indicated that age, gender, and education were not related to differential responses to the scale. However, a significant effect for the duration of stay in North America was found (P < 0.02). An examination of the role of faith in higher power revealed that the participants may consider both the Neurological and Metaphysical beliefs concurrently. The results provided support for the EBAS as a reliable, valid, and culturally sensitive instrument.