Citation
Erickson, Gina & Schaefer, Shelly (2018). Long-term effects of juvenile correctional confinement. Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America. Denver, CO.Abstract
Justice-involved adolescents face significant roadblocks in the transition to adulthood when they navigate this period (roughly ages 18-25) while simultaneously reentering the community after a period of confinement. This study investigates how confinement delays development of psychosocial maturity (responsibility, temperance, and perspective) and how this affects the transition to adulthood. The study uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to compare psychosocial maturity for youth confined before age 18, those arrested before age 18 but not confined, and those with no criminal justice involvement in adolescence. Findings show significantly lower levels of responsibility and perspective for confined youth compared to all other youth. Subsequently, confined youth have lower levels of educational and employment attainment in young adulthood. Results suggest the need for juvenile facilities to incorporate programming that allows juveniles to build psychosocial maturity skills through activities that mirror typical adolescent responsibilities, behaviors, and tasks.URL
https://paa.confex.com/paa/2018/webprogrampreliminary/Paper21489.htmlKeyword(s)
criminal justice contact delinquency psychosocial maturity criminal justice involvementReference Type
Conference proceedingBook Title
Annual Meeting of the Population Association of AmericaSeries Title
Children and youthAuthor(s)
Erickson, GinaSchaefer, Shelly