Impact and Process Evaluations of Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Institutionalized Youth

• In Event: Practitioner-Researcher Partnership: Results from an Evaluation of Dialectical Behavior Therapy in the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice

Abstract

Youth in secure juvenile justice settings often have extensive histories of complex trauma, which adversely affect their early development and lead to a range of serious psychological, emotional, and behavioral problems, often manifesting in severe aggression. Aggressive behaviors are potentially dangerous and volatile and are thus serious concerns for juvenile justice professionals. One promising practice to address such behavioral problems among at-risk youth is cognitive behavioral interventions. However, the scarcity of rigorous evaluations of cognitive behavioral interventions for juvenile justice populations makes it difficult for practitioners to understand which programs are most appropriate for which individuals. Over the past few years, the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) has offered its juvenile offender population two different treatment interventions for aggression management: Aggression Replacement Training (ART) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). This presentation reports interim findings from impact and process evaluations of these interventions.

Authors

• Bryce E. Peterson, Urban Institute

• Samantha Harvell, Urban Institute