Pathways to Forensic Outpatient Treatment: Interpersonal Trauma and Mental Health Problems of Antisocial Adolescents

• In Event: Trauma and Mental Health among At-Risk Adolescents

Abstract

The first aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of traumatic experiences (neglect, physical and sexual abuse and loss of a family member) and internalizing disorders in a clinical sample of adolescents referred to an outpatient forensic clinic. The second aim of the study was to examine whether traumatic experiences predicted internalizing problems in this sample of referred adolescents. Data was collected in the Netherlands from a random sample of the available treatment files of 415 adolescents (208 males and 207 females) aged 12-18 years. Gender differences were found for most of the traumatic experiences with the largest difference for sexual abuse (2.9% of males and 12.6% of females). For most of the internalizing symptoms gender differences were found as well. The largest difference was found for having two or more internalizing symptoms (7.7% of males and 23.7% of females). The prevalence estimates for the internalizing disorders were very low, both for males and females, and no gender differences were found. The trauma-mental health link was found with physical abuse related to internalizing symptoms of males and sexual abuse related to Anxiety Disorders (mainly PTSD) for both males and females.

Authors

• Anne-Marie Slotboom, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

• Jan Hendriks, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

• Machteld Hoeve, Universiteit van Amsterdam