The three studies in this project investigate a selected number of youth protective factors and caregiver parenting skills with reducing the risk of justice involvement for youth involved in the child welfare system without a prior history of justice involvement. All three studies used child welfare administrative data, and the analyses are based on secondary data collected between July 2005 and April 2016. The study data come from the provider-completed Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) assessment and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services’ central information system and includes over 4600 children who met study inclusion criteria. The first study sought to distinguish youth in the child welfare system who became involved with the justice system from youth who did not become involved with the justice system based on the youth’s protective factors and their caregivers’ parenting skills. This was accomplished by examining the frequency of specific youth protective factors and their caregivers’ parenting skills. It was also accomplished by examining the differences in the total number of youth protective factors and the total number of their caregivers’ parenting skills at entry into the child welfare system based on justice system involvement. We also sought to describe the demographic characteristics of youth protective factors and caregiver parenting skills. Using chi-square and analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests, study findings indicated that while the majority of children did not become justice involved, of those kids who did become justice involved, the majority of them were minority youth. There was also a higher proportion of youth with identified child-specific protective factors at baseline without later justice involvement compared to the proportion of youth who later became involved with the justice system. In addition, youth with a higher number of protective factors and caregiver parenting skills at baseline did not have future involvement with the justice system compared to youth with a lower number of protective factors and caregiver parenting skills. Lastly, in terms of parenting practices, the most notable demographic differences were related to race/ethnicity. Findings indicated that the biological parents and caregivers of White youth had more parenting skills compared to the biological parents and caregivers of minority youth. One of the implications of these findings is that reducing dual involvement for youth in the child welfare system may be achieved through strength building and providing additional services to youth and families at the beginning of the youth’s care in the child welfare system. The second study sought to explore whether particular protective factors become more or less developed over time for youth involved in the child welfare system, and if the development of these protective factors is associated with reducing the risk of justice system involvement. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to test the association between the residual gain scores for each individual strength item and time to justice involvement. Study findings demonstrated that for every one-point deviation in the residual gain scores, youth with community life strengths are at an 8% lower risk of becoming justice involved, youth with talents/interests are at a 9% lower risk of becoming justice involved, youth with educational strengths are at a 10% lower risk of becoming justice involved, and youth with spiritual/religious strengths are at a 12% lower risk of becoming justice involved at any given time. This speaks to the protective effect that positive self-concept in the form of individual talents or creativity, community resources, educational supports, and spiritual/religious encouragement have on youth development and functioning while in the child welfare system, in addition to the potential role of the child welfare system in helping to develop each of these specific protective factors. The third study was an extension of the second study by examining the development of youth protective factors over time, categorized at multiple ecological levels (i.e., individual, family, and community), and the association of these protective factors with justice system involvement, to test whether caregiver parenting skills mediate or moderate these associations. We used Baron and Kenny’s (1986) four-step regression approach to demonstrate mediation with Cox proportional hazards regression models to examine the mediating role of caregiver parenting skills at baseline in the association between the development of youth protective factors and justice involvement. The model indicated that a significant percent of the association between youth protective factors and justice involvement was not mediated by parenting skills. Thus, there is no evidence that any of the parenting skills items mediated this association. There may be additional outside factors that that could better explain the relationship between the development of youth protective factors and justice system involvement. This analysis was limited to a narrow selection of youth protective factors and caregiver parenting skills. Future research should consider the range of other factors applicable to the general population such as youth and caregiver demographic and factors specific to youth in the child welfare system which may help shed more light on this topic and further explain the relationship between the development of youth protective factors and justice system involvement for youth in the child welfare system. These three studies suggest that advocating for funding for the implementation of interventions that promote youth protective factors and parenting skills to enhance strengths may be beneficial in reducing the risk of justice involvement for this vulnerable population. There is increasing recognition that prevention efforts focused on youth and family engagement with an emphasis on strengths, is integral to the success of youth in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Strength-centered engagement offers a departure from viewing youth in the child welfare system through a deficit-based lens, and instead focuses on strategies driven by the youth and families’ protective factors that highlight possibilities for treatment and service delivery. Strategies driven by youth protective factors acknowledge that youth are more than the tragedy that occurred in their life and build upon their specific skills and strengths as positive aspects to enhance.

Creator

• Summersett, Faith

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-bv91-f890

Subject

• Clinical psychology

Language

• en

Alternate Identifier

• http://dissertations.umi.com/northwestern:14382
• etdadmin_upload_612771

Keyword

• adolescents
• trauma
• child welfare
• protective factors
• juvenile justice
• minorities

Date created

• 2018-01-01

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright