Disrupting the link between maltreatment and delinquency: how school, family, and community factors can be protective

BMC Public Health

Hannah Winslow¹  Hannah Lantos²  Andra Wilkinson³  Tyler McDaniel⁴ 

[1] 0000 0004 0622 7660, grid.421139.c, Child Trends, 7315 Wisconsin Ave, Suite 1200W, 20814, Bethesda, MD, USA;0000 0004 0622 7660, grid.421139.c, Child Trends, 7315 Wisconsin Ave, Suite 1200W, 20814, Bethesda, MD, USA;0000 0001 2171 9311, grid.21107.35, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health, 615 N. Wolfe St, 21205, Baltimore, MD, USA;0000 0004 0622 7660, grid.421139.c, Child Trends, 7315 Wisconsin Ave, Suite 1200W, 20814, Bethesda, MD, USA;0000000122483208, grid.10698.36, University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Maternal and Child Health, 135 Dauer Drive, 27599, Chapel Hill, NC, USA;0000 0004 0622 7660, grid.421139.c, Child Trends, 7315 Wisconsin Ave, Suite 1200W, 20814, Bethesda, MD, USA;0000000419368956, grid.168010.e, Stanford University, Departmernt of Sociology, 450 Serra Mall, Building 120, Room 160, 94303-20147, Stanford, CA, USA;

关键词: Maltreatment;    Abuse;    Delinquency;    Violent;    Non-violent;    Protective factors;    School connection;    Neighborhood collective efficacy;    Parental relationship quality;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12889-019-6906-y

来源: publisher

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundPast experiences of childhood maltreatment are common for youth involved in the juvenile justice system. This paper explores potential protective factors at the peer, family, school, and neighborhood levels that disrupt the relationship between maltreatment and later non-violent and violent offending behavior and how these protective effects vary by a number of different sociodemographics.MethodsWe used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), a nationally representative longitudinal study of adolescents who were in grades 7–12 in the 1994–95 school year. Pulling data from Add Health respondents from ages 13 to 30, we used linear mixed effects modeling to create growth curves of predicted violent and non-violent offending frequency from adolescence into young adulthood, with maltreatment frequency as a predictor. Next, we tested whether potential protective factors including time with friends, a high-quality relationship with a parent figure, school connection, or neighborhood collective efficacy moderated the intercept or slope of the growth curves. Finally, we tested if sex, race/ethnicity, or sexual orientation moderated these protective effects.ResultsFor violent offending, school connection, high-quality relationships with mother or father figures, and neighborhood collective efficacy were all generally protective, meaning they were associated with lower levels and shallower slopes of predicted violent offending, but they were not more or less protective for those who experienced maltreatment. For non-violent offending, the same was true of school connection, high-quality relationships with a mother figure, and neighborhood collective efficacy, which were all generally protective. We found no evidence of a protective effect for time spent with friends, though this is likely due to measurement constraints, as simply measuring time spent with friends may have heterogeneous effects on delinquent behaviors. We found no evidence that any of these protective effects varied by sociodemographics.ConclusionsThis paper identifies factors that teachers, juvenile corrections officers, policymakers and others can intervene on to prevent engagement (or re-engagement) in delinquency and offending among youth and young adults who experienced maltreatment. As they are also protective for youth who have not experienced maltreatment they also inform general delinquency prevention efforts.

【 授权许可】

CC BY