Context matters: juvenile correctional confinement and psychosocial development

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how adolescent arrest and correctional confinement impact psychosocial development during the transition to adulthood. Design/methodology/approach The research uses a US-based sample of 12,100 youth in junior and high school and again in early adulthood. Factor analyses determine measurement of psychosocial maturity (PSM) and subsequently compare baseline and subsequent psychosocial development in a multivariate framework for males and females. Findings Findings show that net of socio-demographic and delinquency-related controls, all three groups have similar baseline psychosocial measures pre-confinement but by early adulthood (ages 18–25) there are significant differences between the two justice-involved groups for multiple measure of psychosocial well-being, net of any differences at baseline. Differences are exacerbated for females. Research limitations/implications Results suggest the need for juvenile correctional facilities to incorporate programming that allows juveniles to build psychosocial skills through activities that mirror typical adolescent responsibilities, behaviors and tasks. Originality/value The authors compare PSM development for three groups of adolescents: non-justice-involved youth, youth who were arrested but not confined before age 18 (arrested non-confined), and delinquent youth who served time in out-of-home correctional placement before age 18 (confined) to compare development and changes in psychosocial development over time. Further, the authors examine the interaction of gender and confinement to explore if the context of confinement disrupts PSM development differently for females.

Police contacts, arrests and decreasing self‐control and personal responsibility among female adolescents

“…A few studies of serious juvenile offenders suggest that JJS involvement may impair or slow the development of psychosocial maturation. For example, Schaefer & Erickson (2016) reported that adolescents who were arrested and confined prior to age 18, had lower levels of personal responsibility in early adulthood than arrested, but not confined individuals. Their results also showed that young adults who had been arrested in adolescence had lower levels of self-control compared with adults with no history of arrest.…”

Long Term Effects of Juvenile Correctional Confinement

“…The responsibility scale focuses on questions that ask respondents to rank their agreement with statements about their personal qualities, general self-esteem, and connectedness to others. The Wave 1 measure follows the work of [10,59] and uses six questions asking if adolescents agree or disagree with the following: 1) they have a lot of good qualities, 2) they have a lot to be proud of, 3) they like themselves just the way they are, 4) they feel they are doing everything just about right, 5) they feel socially accepted, and 6) they feel loved and wanted. Scores on individual items range from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).…”

“…In particular, placement in a secure setting is associated with short-term declines in the youth's ability to curb impulsive and aggressive behavior and the ability for the youth to function autonomously, while longer periods of confinement in residential treatment settings also negatively impact youths' development of psychosocial maturity. We build on recent work [9,10] that examined the effect of incarceration on psychosocial development. Using the Pathways to Desistance data, [9] to examined how both facility quality and age moderate the impact of incarceration on psychosocial development (see too [44]).…”

“…We recognize for some youth, incarceration during adolescence may offer prosocial opportunities not available in their communities, as well as removal from delinquent peers and other negative influences. However, incarceration may also impede or foreclose psychosocial maturity development [10], early work 2 A discussion on the nature of differences between cohabitation and marriage in the family formation process is beyond the scope of this paper. See [37] for early estimates and [38,39] and [40] for a review of some of this literature.…”

“…Time spent in correctional facilities affects youths' developmental trajectories, specifically their psychosocial development [9,10]. The concept of psychosocial development encompasses three aspects of psychosocial maturity generally referred to as temperance (control impulses), responsibility (resist peer influences and take responsibility for own behavior, and perspective (consider the implications of one's actions on others and other points of view).…”