Implementation and Outcomes of the Trauma Ambassadors Program: A Case Study of Trauma-Informed Youth Leadership Development.

Community-based programs serve a critical need for vulnerable youth and families. In recent years, researchers and practitioners have urged programs to adopt a trauma-informed care (TIC) approach to address adversity in young people's lives. The purpose of this article is to describe the implementation and outcomes of the Trauma Ambassador (TA) Program, a pilot youth leadership program guided by a community-university partnership that utilized a TIC approach in an underserved East North Philadelphia neighborhood. Fourteen youth engaged in interactive trainings to build their understanding of trauma and develop practical tools to support encounters with individuals with trauma histories. Focus groups and individual interviews were conducted to better understand program implementation and outcomes. Rich data emerged that identifies a myriad of ways that youth and their community might benefit from a program like the one described. The program successfully impacted participants, as TAs recognized their own trauma and were motivated to help others who may have trauma histories. This program provided quality youth development experiences, particularly with respect to trauma-informed care, and results support taking a holistic, healing-centered approach to foster well-being for youth and adult mentors.

Understanding the school outcomes of juvenile offenders: an exploration of neighborhood influences and motivational resources.

As a group, delinquent youth complete less education and show poor academic outcomes compared to their non-delinquent peers. To better understand pathways to school success, this study integrated individual- and neighborhood-level data to examine academic functioning among 833 White, Black, and Hispanic male juvenile offenders (age 14-17) living in two urban communities. A multilevel path analysis confirmed that youth in relatively more affluent communities report greater access to opportunities in the areas of education and employment, and that these opportunities are associated with higher expectations to succeed and better grades. Findings highlight the importance of taking an ecological approach for understanding processes that shape school effort and achievement. Implications are discussed in the context of promoting academic success among juvenile offenders, specifically, and for understanding pathways to healthy adjustment, more generally.

AN EMPIRICAL PORTRAIT OF COMMUNITY REENTRY AMONG SERIOUS JUVENILE OFFENDERS IN TWO METROPOLITAN CITIES.

This study examined the community reentry process among 413 serious adolescent offenders released from juvenile court commitments in two metropolitan areas. Data are provided about postrelease court supervision and community-based services (CBSs) during the first 6 months in the community as well as indicators of antisocial activity, formal system involvement, school attendance, and employment. Findings indicate that a far greater proportion of offenders reported receiving supervision than CBSs, but when utilized, the frequency of CBS use was high, and intensive services reduced the odds of formal system involvement. In addition, court supervision increased the likelihood of positive adjustment during community reentry. These results held after controlling for social context variables, including peer deviance, parental monitoring, and contact with caring adults.

Service use after court involvement in a sample of serious adolescent offenders.

The juvenile justice system faces a difficult challenge when providing services to serious adolescent offenders, having to balance community safety concerns with hopes for successful intervention. Increasing the effectiveness of this system rests partially on having a clearer picture of the regularities of current service provision to these adolescents. This study describes the types of services received by a large (N=868) sample of adjudicated serious offenders from two metropolitan areas over a two-year follow-up period after adjudication in court, and examines whether indicators of need for services determine the types of services received in the juvenile justice system. Findings indicate that: 1) the level of specialized services received is rather low, 2) there is considerable site variability, 3) the service needs of adolescents sent to different types of settings appear to be generally equivalent, 4) state training schools appear to provide about the same level of services found in contracted provider settings, and 5) need is an inconsistent determinant of service provision.

Promoting the Well-being of Urban Youth through Drama-based Peer Education.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to examine youths' perceptions of a drama-based peer education approach to promote adolescent well-being. METHODS: High school students facilitated workshops on one of 7 topics (eg, dating violence) for 4733 urban elementary, middle, and high school students. Audience members' perceptions of workshop content and implementation were examined. RESULTS: Analyses suggest that the peer-led workshops addressed important problems for youth in the community, were an effective way to deliver information about the topics to children and teens, and helped audience members to learn more about the topics and how to make responsible decisions. The study also found that some program outcomes differed by sex and age. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that school-based peer education that integrates drama arts is a promising approach for promoting wellness and reducing exposure to violence among urban youth. In addition, findings suggest that we can facilitate positive outcomes to the extent that we match program content to the developmental needs of children and adolescents. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of advancing research on drama-based peer education interventions for urban youth.

Relations between neighborhood factors, parenting behaviors, peer deviance, and delinquency among serious juvenile offenders.

The present study examined relations among neighborhood structural and social characteristics, parenting practices, peer group affiliations, and delinquency among a group of serious adolescent offenders. The sample of 14-18-year-old boys (N=488) was composed primarily of economically disadvantaged, ethnic-minority youth living in urban communities. The results indicate that weak neighborhood social organization is indirectly related to delinquency through its associations with parenting behavior and peer deviance and that a focus on just 1 of these microsystems can lead to oversimplified models of risk for juvenile offending. The authors also find that community social ties may confer both pro- and antisocial influences to youth, and they advocate for a broad conceptualization of neighborhood social processes as these relate to developmental risk for youth living in disadvantaged communities.

Young children can extend motion verbs to point-light displays.

In the first study using point-light displays (lights corresponding to the joints of the human body) to examine children's understanding of verbs, 3-year-olds were tested to see if they could perceive familiar actions that corresponded to motion verbs (e.g., walking). Experiment 1 showed that children could extend familiar motion verbs (e.g., walking and dancing) to videotaped point-light actions shown in the intermodal preferential looking paradigm. Children watched the action that matched the requested verb significantly more than they watched the action that did not match the verb. In Experiment 2, the findings of Experiment 1 were validated by having children spontaneously produce verbs for these actions. The use of point-light displays may illuminate the factors that contribute to verb learning.

Objective and perceived community factors: exploring responses to context.

OBJECTIVES: To study the neighborhood context, researchers typically use (objective) archival measures and (subjective) self-reported data of neighborhood conditions. The current study compared these measures and explored whether internalizing symptoms influences how individuals perceive their neighborhoods. METHODS: The sample was 112 African American young adults living in 27 neighborhoods. Objective indicators of neighborhoods were assessed via census data and compared to self-reported data of neighborhood conditions. RESULTS: Findings revealed that individuals with higher levels of anxiety and depression are more sensitive to objective indicators of neighborhood poverty. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that there are systematic differences in how people perceive their surroundings. Implications of study findings are discussed in terms of improving models of adjustment.

A longitudinal examination of serious adolescent offenders' perceptions of chances for success and engagement in behaviors accomplishing goals.

We examined antisocial adolescents' perceptions of the importance of and their ability to accomplish positive life outcomes (e.g., employment) and avoid negative ones (e.g., arrests) during their transition from adolescence to young adulthood. Participants were 1,354 adolescents from the Pathways to Desistance project, a multisite longitudinal study of seriously antisocial adolescents. Participants' perceptions of the importance and likelihood of accomplishing positive adult goals at one age uniquely predicted how often they engaged in behaviors that were consistent with these goals the following year. Our findings suggest that among serious adolescent offenders aspirations to achieve positive goals are related to engaging in behaviors that bring adolescents' current selves more in line with their aspired-to future selves. We discuss the implications of these findings for prevention and intervention efforts.

The protective function of neighborhood social ties on psychological health.

OBJECTIVE: To examine relations between neighborhood characteristics and psychological health, specifically whether neighborhood trust and cooperation buffers the effects of neighborhood disorder on depression and aggressive behavior. METHODS: The sample was composed of 127 urban, African American young adults from Trenton, NJ. RESULTS: The protective function of neighborhood social interactions depended on the outcome, such that trust and cooperation among neighbors moderated the effect of neighborhood disorder on aggression but not depression. CONCLUSIONS: Results confirm the importance of taking an ecological approach to study and promote the emotional and behavioral health of young adults living in urban communities.

REENTRY OF YOUNG OFFENDERS FROM THE JUSTICE SYSTEM: A Developmental Perspective.

This article presents a developmental perspective on the reentry of young offenders into the community. We begin with a discussion of the psychosocial tasks of late adolescence. Next, we discuss contextual influences on the successful negotiation of these psychosocial tasks. Third, we examine whether and to what extent the contexts to which young offenders are exposed in the justice system are likely to facilitate normative psychosocial development. Finally, we argue that the psychosocial development of youthful offenders is disrupted, or "arrested," by their experiences within the justice system. Interventions designed to facilitate the successful reentry of young offenders into the community must be informed by what we know about healthy psychosocial development in late adolescence.