Open AccessPosttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Recidivism in Serious Juvenile Offenders: Testing the Mediating Role of Future Orientation
Author(s) -
Kaisa Marshall,
Anna Abate,
Amanda Venata
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of child and adolescent trauma
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.583
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1936-153X
pISSN - 1936-1521
DOI - 10.1007/s40653-018-0234-8
Subject(s) - recidivism , juvenile delinquency , psychology , mediation , context (archaeology) , clinical psychology , poison control , orientation (vector space) , injury prevention , intervention (counseling) , suicide prevention , human factors and ergonomics , juvenile , developmental psychology , psychiatry , medicine , medical emergency , paleontology , genetics , geometry , mathematics , political science , law , biology
Evidence suggests delinquent youth are more likely to suffer from posttraumatic stress symptoms and links those symptoms to subsequent aggressive behavior and criminal activity. Research also indicates the impact of decision-making capacity in this context. Specifically, future orientation has been shown to play an important role in adolescent delinquency; less future orientation has been linked with persistent delinquency. Notably, trauma exposure is associated with slower development of future orientation in delinquent youth. Using a sample of serious juvenile offenders, the current study examined the relation between posttraumatic stress symptoms and aggressive reoffending testing the hypothesis that future orientation would mediate that relation. Results did not indicate significant mediation by future orientation in the link between posttraumatic stress symptoms and aggressive reoffending. However, experiencing posttraumatic stress symptoms and low future orientation separately increased the likelihood of aggressive recidivism. Findings highlight the value of comprehensive prevention and intervention efforts, targeting both posttraumatic stress symptoms and future orientation.