Abstract
Court-involved youth exhibit high rates of psychiatric symptoms, substance use, and delinquency, yet little is known about the contributing roles of caregiver and family factors. The current study examined whether family functioning and parental monitoring mediate the relationship between caregiver and youth psychiatric symptoms (at first court contact) and youth substance use and delinquency (two years later). Participants were 400 first-time offending court-involved youth (Mage = 14.5 years; 57.3% male; 45.6% non-Latinx White, 42.0% Latinx) and an involved caregiver (Mage = 41.0 years; 87.2% female; 53.0% non-Latinx White, 33.8% Latinx). Structural equation modeling revealed that caregiver and youth psychiatric symptoms were prospectively associated with worse family functioning, which was in turn related to higher levels of youth delinquency and greater likelihood of substance use. The results support the notion of addressing the needs of justice-involved youth and families holistically rather than treating youth as “the problem” in isolation.
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Notes
The original subscale includes 24 items. Due to an error in the audio-assisted computerized assessment development, item 24 of the National Youth Survey Self-Reported Delinquency general delinquency scale, “Have you had sexual intercourse with a person who was not your serious partner when involved in a relationship?” was not administered to study participants; therefore, subscale scores range from 1-23 but still accurately indicate that greater scores represent greater number of delinquent acts.
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Acknowledgements
Many thanks to the members of the Juvenile Justice Behavioral Health Lab for their assistance with this research, and to the youth and families who participated.
Funding
This research was supported by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA034538) and National Institute of Mental Health (T32MH018261).
Authors’ Contributions
J.B.F. conceived of the study, performed the statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript; L.B. and B.D.L.M. provided guidance on statistical analysis and interpretation of data and participated in drafting the manuscript; L.M.C.R. and L.G. participated in drafting the manuscript and creating figures; D.K.M. participated in drafting the manuscript; M.T.S. conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination, and helped to draft the manuscript; All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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All recruitment and study procedures were approved by the Principal Investigator’s university and collaborating sites’ Institutional Review Board (and Office for Human Research Protections) and conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the American Psychological Association.
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Folk, J.B., Brown, L.K., Marshall, B.D.L. et al. The Prospective Impact of Family Functioning and Parenting Practices on Court-Involved Youth’s Substance Use and Delinquent Behavior. J Youth Adolescence 49, 238–251 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-01099-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-01099-8