Adverse childhood experiences and co-occurring psychological distress and substance abuse among juvenile offenders: the role of protective factors

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Negative Outcomes Among Justice-Involved Youth: Moderating Effects of Protective Factors

“…Bivariate relations of several protective factors with psychopathology symptoms (Table 2) demonstrate a small protective effect, but the inclusion of cumulative ACE exposure and simultaneously occurring protective factors negates such an effect. This finding may be unique to this sample, as other studies demonstrate a protective role of several protective factors in the presence of cumulative ACE exposure (Clements-Nolle & Waddington, 2019;Lensch et al, 2021aLensch et al, , 2021b. This may be explained by the high ACE exposure in the sample (49% of youth had 4 or more ACEs) and low mean levels of several protective factors (Empathy: M = 0.97; Prosocial Peers: M = 0.86; Prosocial Community: M = 0.47).…”

“…Additionally, these findings help bolster the current literature (Cui, Oshri et al, 2020;Davis et al, 2019;Lensch et al, 2021a;Sparks et al, 2021) that the development of protective factors, both developing from within the individual and from their environment, may be an important intervention strategy in decreasing a youth's involvement in the criminal justice system. While the current literature contains a variety of theories concerning the role of protective factors in offending patterns (Serin et al, 2016), the present findings identify the overall need to better understand how developing protective factors may mitigate, deter, and/or interact with a youth's risk for offending.…”

“…There is a wealth of literature that supports the deleterious effects that ACEs have on JI youth, specifically in the development of psychopathology and involvement in criminal behavior. Further, a burgeoning area has begun to explore the buffering effect of protective factors on these relations; However, few studies have explored these effects with protective factors from both internal and external domains (Clements-Nolle & Waddington, 2019;Lensch et al, 2021aLensch et al, , 2021bLi, Ng et al, 2021). Among these studies, the examination of these factors is generally limited to a small quantity of factors across both domains with internal protective factors more often explored as a cumulative score of internal resilience/assets rather than as several internal-type factors.…”

“…These outcomes are often exacerbated by exposure to multiple adverse events (i.e., poly-victimization; Cloitre et al, 2009; Ford et al, 2013). However, these outcomes are not predetermined and a variety of protective factors, or traits that can modify or change an individual’s response to adversity (Resnick, 2000; Rutter, 1985) that include individual traits (or internal protective factors) and environmental contexts (or external protective factors), may buffer a youth against the impact of ACEs (Chen et al, 2013; Clements-Nolle et al, 2019; Craig et al, 2017; Lensch et al, 2021a, 2021b; So et al, 2018). As such, there is a critical need to understand how protective factors such as individual characteristics, family dynamics, and the community influence the relationship between ACEs and outcomes faced by JI youth to enhance the lives of this vulnerable population.…”

The Association Between Expanded ACEs and Behavioral Health Outcomes Among Youth at First Time Legal System Contact

“…Studies have been mixed regarding the impact of ACEs on trauma symptoms; high-quality studies examined in a systematic review showed no evidence that higher ACEs scores predict trauma symptoms (Malvaso et al, 2021). In one study that broadened standard ACEs to include parental and/or guardian death, peer victimization, witnessing community violence, and family experiences of homelessness, JIY with co-occurring psychological and substance use difficulties reported significantly more ACES relative to those with one or no behavioral health concerns (Lensch et al, 2021). It is possible inclusion of the expanded ACEs increased predictive utility of the ACEs score in this study, suggesting the need for further research in this area among JIY.…”