Citation

Morrow AS, Villodas MT, Cunius MK. Child Maltreat. 2019; 24(3): 286-298.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1077559519828819

PMID

30798626

Abstract

This study aimed to prospectively identify ecological risk factors for juvenile arrest in a sample of youth at risk for maltreatment. Chi-Squared Automatic Interaction Detector analysis was performed with data from 592 youth from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect to identify the optimal combination of age 14 predictors of past-year arrest at age 16.

RESULTS extended previous research, which has identified being male, having more conduct disorder symptoms, suspension from school, perceived school importance, witnessing family violence, and having a jailed family member as key risk and protective factors for arrest by identifying important interactions among these risk factors. These interactions differentiate youth at the greatest risk of arrest, which, in this sample, were males with greater than two symptoms of conduct disorder who witnessed family violence. These findings suggest that longitudinal and multi-informant data could inform the refinement of actuarial risk assessments for juvenile arrest.

Language: en

Keywords

ACEs; actuarial approach; juvenile justice involvement; school engagement