Ecological Considerations for Juvenile Mental Health: Neighborhood Environment and Family Criminality

• In Event: Challenges to Developmental and Psychological Determinants of Crime

Abstract

Youth with a history of family criminality are vulnerable to numerous adverse outcomes, including chronic juvenile offending and mental illness (Farrington & Loeber, 2000; Cauffman, 2004). Furthermore, it is important to recognize the context within which this pattern occurs. Two competing hypotheses predict wellbeing of youth with a history of family criminality as moderated by neighborhood quality. The former states that neighborhood disorder augments challenges associated with family criminality as it introduces independent factors which are detrimental to children’s wellbeing (Trice & Brewster, 2004). The latter states that neighborhood disorder mitigates challenges associated with family criminality, with the assumption that family criminality is less disruptive to children’s lives if it is a relatively common occurrence within their communities (Harm & Phillips, 2001). The present study empirically tests these hypotheses by evaluating the role of neighborhood environment in predicting mental health outcomes of juvenile offenders with a history of family criminality. Analyses leverage the Crossroads study, a longitudinal dataset of 1,216 first-time juvenile offenders (ages 13-17). Hierarchical linear regression analyses indicate that, while both family criminality and neighborhood disorder are associated with poor mental health outcomes in juvenile offenders, there is no detected interaction between these two variables. Findings from this study have valuable implications for informing custodial determination decisions.

Authors

• Mary Katherine Kitzmiller, Michigan State University

• Caitlin Cavanagh, Michigan State University

• Elizabeth Cauffman, University of California, Irvine

• Paul J. Frick, Louisiana State University

• Laurence Steinberg, Temple University