Depressive Profiles Among Adolescents Who Have Been School Disciplined and School Policed

• In Event: Vulnerability and Punishment

Abstract

Objective: Identify nuanced depressive subgroups among adolescents who experienced school discipline and school policing.

Methods: 4,898 adolescents from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing (FFCWS) were used to conduct a latent class analysis to examine the subgroup differences among adolescents regarding school discipline and school policing and the outcome of depressive symptoms.

Results: Our study identified four subgroups of youths: (1) “never disciplined almost always has police stationed,” (2) “never stopped by school police and mostly never disciplined,” (3) “exclusively disciplined,” and (4) “ecology of low-high school discipline and school policing.”
Conclusion: The mental health needs of Black girls surpass their peers. Educators, mental health professionals, and policymakers should identify specific interventions.

Author

• Collin Perryman, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health