"Roses have thorns for a reason": The promises and perils of critical youth participatory research with system-impacted girls of Color.

Scholarship on girlhood-especially for girls of Color-is often relegated to studying risk and emphasizing individual deficits over humanizing girls and centering their voices. This approach to generating scholarship renders oppressive systems and processes invisible from inquiry and unaddressed by practice, with particularly insidious consequences for youth in the legal system. Critical youth participatory action research (YPAR) is acknowledged as an antidote to these conceptualizations because it resists deficit-oriented narratives circling systems-impacted youth by inviting them to the knowledge-generating table. In this paper, we present an empirical analysis of the promises and perils that emerged as we conducted a year-long critical YPAR project alongside five system-impacted girls of Color. Our thematic analysis of process notes (30 meetings, 120 h) documents the stories posited by girls, in a democratized space, about the injustices of interconnected institutions, and unearths a complicated tension for both youth and adult coresearchers around the promises and perils of engaging in YPAR within the academy. These findings underscore the importance of using intersectional, collaborative research to challenge perceptions around how we legitimize knowledge. We describe lessons learned in conducting YPAR in academic settings and highlight recommendations to grow youth-adult partnerships within oppressive systems to share power.

Profiles of Risk for Self-injurious Thoughts and Behaviors Among System-Impacted Girls of Color.

OBJECTIVE: Suicide is a leading cause of death among youth in custodial settings. Prior research investigating risk factors for suicide among system-impacted youth fail to incorporate an intersectional framework to contextualize suicide risk among system-impacted girls of color. METHOD: Profiles of risk for self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs) were investigated in a sample of 240 racially and ethnically diverse system-impacted girls (mean [SD] age = 14.5 [1.7] years, Hispanic/Latinx 49.6%, Black 37.1%). Participants completed self-report measures evaluating traditional risk factors for suicide (mental health symptoms, trauma exposure) as well as assessments of minority stress (eg, daily discrimination) and recent engagement in SITBs at baseline and 3-month follow-up. RESULTS: Latent profile analysis revealed 3 distinct profiles: low-risk, characterized by relatively low levels of suicide risk indicators (n = 102); high-risk internalizing, characterized by elevations in internalizing symptom indicators (n = 96); and high-risk comorbid, characterized by relatively high levels of suicide risk indicators (n = 42). Girls in the high-risk profiles reported more SITBs at baseline and 3-month follow-up than girls in the low-risk profile. CONCLUSION: Results suggest that indicators of suicide risk can be used to classify system-impacted girls into profiles that differ concurrently and prospectively on SITBs. Findings could be used to inform more accurate risk and referral assessments for system-impacted girls of color, whose SITB-related challenges may be overlooked or framed as criminal. These findings highlight the continued need for assessments evaluating multiple indicators of risk for SITBs in the juvenile legal system. DIVERSITY & INCLUSION STATEMENT: We worked to ensure race, ethnic, and/or other types of diversity in the recruitment of human participants. We worked to ensure that the study questionnaires were prepared in an inclusive way. One or more of the authors of this paper self-identifies as a member of one or more historically underrepresented racial and/or ethnic groups in science. We actively worked to promote inclusion of historically underrepresented racial and/or ethnic groups in science in our author group.

The effectiveness of PTSD treatment for adolescents in the juvenile justice system: A systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to systematically review existing empirical evidence on the effectiveness of trauma-specific treatment for justice-involved adolescents and evaluate the impact of the interventions on the reduction of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, co-occurring mental health symptoms, and juvenile justice-related outcomes. METHOD: A systematic literature search was conducted using a four-step process. Studies were included if they used a manualized, trauma-specific treatment with at least one control or comparison group and a sample comprised exclusively of justice-involved adolescents. RESULTS: In total, 1,699 unique records were identified, and 56 full-text articles were reviewed, of which 7 met the criteria for inclusion. Trauma-specific interventions led to a decrease in PTSD symptoms compared with a control group in four of seven studies, and two studies also demonstrated a reduction in trauma-related depressive symptoms. Finally, juvenile justice-related outcomes were measured in only four studies, with one study finding moderately reduced rates of delinquent behavior and recidivism following trauma-specific treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The results from this systematic review suggest that trauma-specific treatment interventions have promising effects for justice-involved adolescents. However, the results reveal a dearth of quality intervention research for treating youths with histories of trauma in the justice system. Significant gaps in the literature are highlighted, and suggestions for future directions are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).