Longitudinal Change in Adolescent Depression and Anxiety Symptoms from before to during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

This study aimed to examine changes in depression and anxiety symptoms from before to during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in a sample of 1,339 adolescents (9-18 years old, 59% female) from three countries. We also examined if age, race/ethnicity, disease burden, or strictness of government restrictions moderated change in symptoms. Data from 12 longitudinal studies (10 U.S., 1 Netherlands, 1 Peru) were combined. Linear mixed effect models showed that depression, but not anxiety, symptoms increased significantly (median increase = 28%). The most negative mental health impacts were reported by multiracial adolescents and those under 'lockdown' restrictions. Policy makers need to consider these impacts by investing in ways to support adolescents' mental health during the pandemic.

The Moderating Role of Maternal CU Traits in the Stability of Justice-Involved Adolescents' CU Traits.

OBJECTIVE: Callous-unemotional (CU) traits are associated with chronic and severe antisocial behavior. Although previous research has found that parents play an important role in the etiology and maintenance of youth CU traits, little research has examined the extent that parents' own CU traits impact the stability of their children's CU traits. The present study investigated the moderating role of maternal CU traits on developmental changes in youth CU traits. METHOD: A sample of 346 mother-son dyads, in which all youth were justice-involved males (Mage = 15.81; 57.80% Latino, 20.52% White, 18.21% Black, 3.47% other race/ethnicity), across three states (California, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania) completed a semi-structured interview. RESULTS: Youth exhibited a decrease in CU traits over 30 months. Mothers' CU traits moderated this relation, such that high maternal CU traits were associated with a smaller decrease in CU traits than low or average maternal CU traits, both when considering youth CU traits continuously and using a clinically significant cut score. The findings remained for continuous CU traits even after accounting for environmental factors (i.e., maternal warmth, maternal hostility, victimization, and witnessing violence), and these environmental factors did not vary over time. CONCLUSION: The results highlight the importance of maternal influence in understanding how youth CU traits change over time, and have important implications for the use of parenting and family-level interventions among justice-involved youth.

Adolescents' adherence to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the United States resulted in safety guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) intended to curb the spread of the virus. Adolescents are potentially at risk for disregarding these guidelines due to their reduced psychosocial maturity compared with adults. The current study examined the relationship between adolescents' psychosocial maturity, perceived importance of the CDC guidelines and adherence to the CDC guidelines within some of the highest risk groups for contracting COVID-19 in a county particularly impacted by the pandemic (i.e., Hispanic and low-SES youth in El Paso, Texas). METHODS: Participants completed a phone interview with a research assistant regarding their thoughts and behaviours in the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Adolescents (N = 68) were 15.38 years old on average (SD = 1.05, range = 13, 17), predominantly male (60.3%) and nearly exclusively Hispanic/Latino (94.1%). RESULTS: Results indicated that although more psychosocially mature adolescents reported greater adherence to the CDC guidelines than less psychosocially mature adolescents, the association between psychosocial maturity and adherence was fully mediated by how important adolescents felt it was to follow the guidelines. Specifically, greater perceived importance was associated with greater adherence to the guidelines. CONCLUSIONS: The current study found that more psychosocially mature adolescents adhere to CDC's safety guidelines better than less psychosocially mature adolescents because they are more likely to view the guidelines as important. Information that attempts to increase adolescent adherence to the guidelines should therefore emphasize not only that following the guidelines is important, but why following the guidelines is so important. Less psychosocially mature adolescents may benefit most from interventions efforts and targeted messages regarding the importance of following the CDC's guidelines, as more psychosocially mature adolescents already recognize this importance.

Lesson learned? Mothers' legal knowledge and juvenile rearrests.

OBJECTIVE: The present study examined how mothers' personal characteristics, experience with, and attitudes toward the juvenile justice system are associated with their knowledge of the juvenile justice system over time. HYPOTHESES: We hypothesized that additional exposure to the system (via sons' rearrests) would be associated with greater legal knowledge. We predicted that White women, women with higher educational attainment, and women who had been arrested would experience greater gains in legal knowledge over time, relative to non-White women, women with lower educational attainment, and women who had not been arrested. Finally, we predicted that mothers' attitudes toward the legitimacy of the justice system would not be associated with their change in legal knowledge. METHOD: Mothers (N = 234) of male youth (majority non-White) completed a questionnaire of their knowledge about the juvenile justice system after their sons' 1st arrest (T1) and again 2.5 years later (T2). RESULTS: Knowledge did not improve over time, regardless of whether the youth was rearrested. Black mothers displayed less knowledge of the juvenile justice system when their sons were rearrested multiple times. Attitudes toward the justice system were not associated with legal knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: These results illustrate the importance of a family educational component to juvenile probation, especially as a vehicle to reduce disproportionate minority contact with the juvenile justice system. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

How Does Juvenile Offending Relate to Mothers' Aspirations and Expectations for Their Sons?

Mothers of 317 first-time juvenile offenders (M = 15.35 years old) were interviewed over 2.5 years about their expectations and aspirations for their sons' futures. Mothers' expectations were lower than their aspirations, reflecting a discrepancy between what mothers felt was important for their child's future and what they considered likely to happen. As their children continued to engage in delinquent acts, mothers' expectations for their sons' future success diminished. Youth age moderated the association between delinquency and maternal expectations, such that when perceived delinquency was high, expectations were lower for mothers of young sons compared to mothers of older sons. These findings carry implications for practice and intervention, as parent expectations and aspirations are both directly and indirectly associated with youth achievement.

The role of rearrests in juvenile offenders' and their mothers' attitudes toward police.

Both personal experience and parental attitudes shape youths' attitudes toward the justice system. The present study tested the influence of (a) youth rearrests and (b) parents' attitudes toward police on trajectories of youthful offenders' attitudes toward police over 3 years. Among a sample of 317 first-time male juvenile offenders and their mothers, group-based trajectory modeling identified 4 trajectories of youths' attitudes toward police over the 3 years since the youths' first arrests. Mothers with more positive initial attitudes toward the police were more likely to have sons who were part of 1 of the 2 positive attitude trajectory groups than the 2 negative attitude trajectory groups. In contrast, youth rearrests were rarely associated with trajectory group membership, suggesting that a mother's attitude toward the police may outweigh a youth's own experience (via arrests) with the justice system in determining trajectories of his attitudes toward the police. Additionally, the present study tests whether parents' own attitudes toward police are predicted by their children's rearrests. We found that mothers whose sons were rearrested during the study period had more negative attitudes toward the police. The results add a novel component to our understanding of family attitude dynamics as related to perceptions of law enforcement and juvenile arrests. Overall, a family level perspective is necessary when considering the effects of rearrests on youths'-and their parents'-attitudes toward the police. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Is the effect of justice system attitudes on recidivism stable after youths' first arrest? Race and legal socialization among first-time youth offenders.

Youth who hold negative attitudes toward the justice system are more likely to engage in crime. It is particularly important to study attitudes early in someone's criminal career when they may still be open to change. To date, however, there has been no empirical test assessing whether the relation between attitudes and behavior changes after a first arrest. Using a sample of 1,216 first-time, male, juvenile offenders from the Crossroads Study, the present study explored: (a) racial/ethnic differences in the longitudinal patterns of youths' attitudes; and (b) reciprocal associations between youths' attitudes and both their offending behavior and rearrests in the 2.5 years after their first arrest. The results indicated that White youths' attitudes remained largely stable, Black youths' attitudes became more negative, and Latino youths' attitudes became more negative but only among Latino youth who reoffended. Although the results indicated that youths' attitudes were related to both offending and rearrest, the bidirectional relation between attitudes and offending weakened across time. After 2.5 years after their first arrest, attitudes no longer predicted offending or rearrests. These novel findings suggest that a youth's first contact is likely the most impactful. When it comes to young offenders' interactions with the justice system, first impressions matter. (PsycINFO Database Record

The Longitudinal Association of Relationship Quality and Reoffending Among First-Time Juvenile Offenders and Their Mothers.

To understand how youth desist from crime after their first arrest, it is necessary to investigate their primary support system: their parents. As such, this study examined the reciprocal effects of justice system contact on the mother-child dyad. Interviews with 317 mothers and their sons from Orange County, CA, Jefferson Parish, LA, and Philadelphia, PA were conducted semiannually over two and a half years. At the beginning of the study, the sons were first-time offenders aged 13-17 and mostly non-White (i.e., 19.2 White, 56.5 Latino, 21.5 Black, and 2.8% another race/ethnicity). The results revealed that a high quality initial mother-son relationship reduces youths' re-offending over time. Furthermore, as mothers perceived that their sons were offending more, they reported less warmth in their relationships with their sons two and a half years later. Interestingly, youth's age emerged as a moderator. First, older youth were less likely to engage in reoffending if they had a warm maternal relationship. Second, decreases in relationship warmth associated with re-offending were steeper for younger youth. The findings have implications for juvenile justice policy in terms of improving probationary outcomes for youth offenders, and alleviating the financial and emotional burden on justice system-involved families.

The role of peer arrests on the development of youths' attitudes towards the justice system.

During adolescence, youths develop attitudes about the justice system. Although there is consistent evidence that personal experiences with legal actors contribute to attitudes toward the justice system, adolescents' attitudes may also be influenced vicariously through their friends' experiences with the justice system. Using data from a sample of 1,216 first-time male adolescent offenders, the present study examines how attitudes toward the justice system develop over 24 months following the adolescent's first arrest. Even after accounting for personal justice system experiences, including self-reported offending, time on the streets, and contacts with the police, results indicate that adolescents with friends who were arrested report more negative attitudes toward the justice system than those without friends who were arrested. Further, experiencing a friend's arrest has a larger impact on the attitudes of youths who are experiencing it for the first time. We provide evidence that attitudes toward the justice system are a product of accumulated social experiences-both personal and vicarious-with the justice system.

The land of the free: undocumented families in the juvenile justice system.

Approximately 8 million Latinos in the United States are undocumented immigrants, nearly half of whom are parents to a minor. Concerns over deportation may affect the way families with undocumented members perceive legal authorities relative to documented immigrant families. Yet, there have been few studies on how Latinos (documented or undocumented) interact with, and form attitudes about, police and no studies on adjudicated youth from families with an undocumented member. To address this gap, 155 pairs (N = 310) of Latina immigrant mothers and their first-time offending sons were interviewed. More than half of the mothers, and 12.3% of youth, were undocumented residents. Controlling for key contextual factors, youth whose mothers were undocumented held more negative attitudes toward the police than youth whose mothers were documented. Youth, however, did not perceive judges differently based on mother's documentation status, suggesting that documentation status relates to police specifically rather than justice system attitudes broadly. The same pattern was noted when considering youth's own documentation status. Because negative attitudes toward police have been associated with decreased reports of victimization and other crimes, policy related to undocumented immigration should consider the unintended effects of such laws. (PsycINFO Database Record

Does mother know best? Adolescent and mother reports of impulsivity and subsequent delinquency.

Although impulsivity is one of the strongest psychological predictors of crime, it is unclear how well impulsivity, measured at a specific moment in adolescence, predicts criminal behavior months or years into the future. The present study investigated how far into the future self-reports and parents' reports of a youth's impulsivity predicted whether he engaged in illegal behavior, whether one reporter's assessment was more predictive than the other's, and whether there is value in obtaining multiple reports. Data were obtained from a 6-year longitudinal study of adjudicated juvenile offenders (n = 701 mother-son dyads). Youth (m = 15.93 years old; sd = 1.14) and their mothers independently reported on adolescents' impulsivity at the initial assessment. We examined the prospective correlation of these measures with illegal behavior, assessed by official records of arrests and youths' self-reports of offending across the 72-month study period. Youths' and mothers' reports of the adolescents' impulsivity were weakly, but significantly, correlated with one another. Furthermore, mothers' ratings of their sons' impulsivity predicted arrest up to 6 years into the future, whereas youths' reports did not significantly predict arrest beyond 30 months. With respect to youths' self-reports of offending, mothers' ratings of impulsivity again predicted farther into the future (as late as 6 years later) than did youths' self-reports of impulsivity, which were not predictive beyond 4 years. However, across the first 4 years, youths' self-reports of impulsivity explained more variance in self-reported offending than did mothers' ratings. The results underscore the endurance of the predictive utility of an assessment of impulsivity and the importance (and accuracy) of parents' reports of developmental constructs, even when their children are adolescents.

Mothers with justice-involved sons: Socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19 by neighborhood disorder in the United States.

Women, particularly mothers, have faced disparate socioeconomic consequences throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Research has yet to examine whether the consequences of the pandemic vary based on the level of neighborhood disorder, which is associated with various health conditions, including COVID-19 complications. The present study utilizes data from a diverse sample of 221 women with justice-involved sons interviewed during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Negative binominal and logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine whether perceived neighborhood social disorder is related to socioeconomic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and whether the relation varies for mothers with and without children in their home during the pandemic. The results suggest that greater perceived neighborhood social disorder was associated with increased in COVID-19-related socioeconomic consequences. Neighborhood social disorder affected socioeconomic impacts above and beyond the effects of having a child living in the home. Additionally, Latinas experienced greater socioeconomic impacts than women of other races and ethnicities. The results indicate a key relationship between the neighborhood conditions a woman lives in and the extent of the socioeconomic consequences they faced during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Future directions and direct implications of the study findings are discussed.

Can probation officers identify remorse among male adolescent offenders?

Judgments about a youth's level of remorse are frequently used to make important decisions in the juvenile justice system that can have serious consequences to the person. Unfortunately, little is known about these ratings and what factors may influence them. In a sample of 325 1st-time youth offenders who were arrested for offenses of moderate severity, we tested whether probation officers' ratings of an adolescent's remorse soon after arrest were associated with the youth's self-report of showing a callous and unemotional interpersonal style, being arrested for a violent offense, and several demographic and background characteristics (e.g., age, race, socioeconomic status [SES], and intelligence). Our analyses indicated that both arrest for a violent offense and the adolescent's self-reported level of callous-unemotional (CU) traits were associated with probation officers' ratings of remorse. Further, youth age, SES, and intelligence neither were associated with these judgments nor moderated the association between CU traits and probation officers' ratings of remorse. However, youth race or ethnicity did moderate the association between CU traits and judgments of remorse, such that Latino youth who were high on CU traits showed a very low probability of being rated as remorseful. (PsycINFO Database Record