Objective: The transition to emerging adulthood can contribute to increased emotional and psychological difficulties. Help-seeking behavior, especially from informal sources of support, can facilitate access to formal mental health treatment. However, little is known about how emerging adults' social networks and their unique characteristics may encourage help-seeking intentions for mental health concerns during this developmental period. We examined the association between friendship network characteristics and informal help-seeking intent for mental health challenges. Method: A total of 91 emerging adults who were exposed to Sources of Strength-a prevention program delivered in high schools-were surveyed 12 months following their high school graduation. Results: Using linear regression analysis, we found that youths with larger and emotionally closer friendship networks and networks that held more positive help-seeking norms had more favorable dispositions toward informal help-seeking. The severity of depressive symptoms was negatively associated with help-seeking intent. Conclusions: Findings indicate that effectively targeting the identified network characteristics holds potential for facilitating informal help seeking. Moreover, study results underscore the potential value of prevention initiatives in emerging adulthood that raise awareness about signs of depression and reduce the stigma of depression to encourage such help seeking.

While there are multiple risk factors associated with adolescent sexual violence perpetration, childhood trauma and adversity may be one of the most prominent factors. Trauma sequela including regulation deficits, trauma symptoms, and attachment-based disruptions may be key modifiable targets in interventions that aim to impact functional outcomes, yet treatment targets and philosophies of change are not always well defined or not robustly integrated into problem sexual behavior treatment programs for adolescents. Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for problem sexual behaviors among adolescents (TF-CBT for PSB-A) has emerged as a new treatment option for adolescents with histories of victimization or adversity who may concurrently be at risk for or have detected PSB. This study explored the initial feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary promise in providing the enhanced TF-CBT for PSB-A in community-based and juvenile justice settings to youth and their caregivers. Results show feasibility and acceptability of this intervention but found notable readiness factors that warrant consideration. Results also demonstrated statistical significance and positive trends from pre-to post-test on treatment targets. This study offers promise for trauma-specific treatment services among youth and opportunities for strengthening training and implementation.

Background Treatment for adolescents who have sexually offended, aimed at reducing risk and recidivism, must be specialized and distinct from adult sexual offending treatment (McPherson et al., 2024). Group therapy can offer psychoeducation to numerous clients concurrently, support youth in developing social skills, and enhance treatment engagement (Rich, 2011). A ims : This study presents the quantitative portion of a mixed methods explanatory sequential design to assess the Unite and Redefine group therapy program in reducing feelings of shame, endorse less hegemonically masculine constructs, and increase self-compassion. Methods This study concerns the quantitative survey portion of a larger mixed methods design. Participants were adolescent participants in treatment for sexual offending and attending. The community based Unite and Redefine Group Therapy program. Participants completed five scales on the first and last day of the twelve-week group. Results A total of nine participants (M age =16.89, SD = 1.17) completed both pretests and post-tests and demonstrated a diverse sample of youth. Participants demonstrated reductions in the masculinity ideology ( p < 0.05), guilt ( p < 0.05), and overidentification subscale ( p < 0.10). The participants also experienced an increase in pride ( p < 0.10) and therapeutic inventory factors ( p < 0.001). Although hypothesized, shame did not see a significant change, while shame and guilt were significantly higher than population norms. Discussion This study offers tentative quantitative support, despite limitations, for the Unite and Redefine group therapy, speaking to the importance of offering interventions that target factors beyond recidivism.

Purpose of Review The purpose of this review is to discuss how attachment theory can be applied to explain sexual violence. Specifically, it discusses how the development of certain risk factors contributes to these behaviors and how attachment-based models can be used to address this issue through prevention and therapeutic interventions. Recent Findings Recent research demonstrates that individuals who commit sexual offenses have higher rates of insecure attachment styles and that these styles are associated with a number of criminogenic risk factors associated with sexual offending. Such risk factors include cognitive processing difficulties, affect dysregulation, and challenges in interpersonal relationships, among others. Fortunately, treatment interventions have been shown to foster more secure attachment styles and reduce these risk factors. Summary Attachment theory is a viable theory to both understand and intervene with those who have committed sexual violence to reduce the risk factors associated with sexual violence.

Research has long demonstrated that adolescents with sexual problem behaviors (PSB-A) have variations in developmental antecedents and types of sexually problematic behaviors. The knowledge of adult and adolescent between-group variation has contributed to further complexities in classifying within-group differences in adolescents with typological research being at the forefront of this conversation. Despite some research using existing data sources to create typological distinctions via Latent Class Analysis (LCA), etiological research has not been prospectively integrated consistently or comprehensively when constructing and validating domains that then generate typological distinctions via LCA. The current study partnered with a midwestern specialized court docket to conduct an exploratory formative evaluation in developing and preliminarily validating a PSB-A typology tool that was then used to generate broad typological classifications of PSB-A. This work is an initial exploration study that will be expanded to a larger validation project using larger samples and prospective data collection procedures with the hope of offering court and clinical utility to aid in individualizing treatment and supervision of PSB-A.

Introduction: Sources of Strength is a universal prevention program for youth that provides tools and educational opportunities to promote wellness and reduce risk. A major aim of Sources is to build youth-adult relationships to support youth in times of distress. However, no study to date has investigated how adults effectively build re-lationships with youth despite this being critical to successful implementation of Sources. The present study explores both student and staff perspectives of what characteristics, skills, and approaches encourage the development of supportive student-adult relationships to inform efforts for successful intervention implementation.Methods: This qualitative supplement to a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) of Sources, recruited 23 students in grades 9 to 12 for individual interviews and 11 staff members for focus groups from 2 high schools implementing the intervention. Semi-structured interview guides were used, and emergent themes were identified through process and pattern coding.Results: Key facilitators of supportive and effective adult-youth relationships included perceptions of adults as approachable, caring, encouraging, and understanding. Successful adult advisors used humor and were perceived as invested and engaged in the lives of youth. Maintaining accountability for youth, balanced with intervention and provision of resources additionally emerged as a critical factor supporting positive relationships with youth. Sources itself emerged as a catalyst for the growth of these positive and supportive youth-adult relationships.Conclusions: Trusted adults are instrumental as both operators within prevention programs targeting young people and as facilitators in adult-youth relationships through leveraging key skills and approaches. These findings can inform quality implementation of interventions, like Sources, that embed adult-youth connections as a central feature of the program model.

Sexual abuse (SA) perpetration is a significant public health problem; SA perpetration is most likely to emerge during adolescence and youth ages 13 to 17 account for a significant portion of all child sexual abuse. While research shows that these youth have high rates of adversity, once they have engaged in problem sexual behavior (PSB), their own trauma histories are often ignored with treatment primarily focused on reducing risk for reoffending. Although sexual re -offense rates among adolescents with PSB are very low, the rates of non-sexual recidivism are considerably higher; with almost half of known youth have reoffended non-sexually, requiring development, implementation, and testing of therapeutic interventions responsive to the indi-cated risks and unmet needs of adolescents who have engaged in a range of problematic sexual behaviors (PSB-A) and their families. Yet, there are no empirically supported interventions designed specifically to address PSB-A with trauma histories. This article introduces how Trauma -Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can be applied to PSB-A and provides implications for practice and future research.

More than a third of all sexual crimes are committed by adolescents. In addition, many adolescents struggle with problematic sexual behaviors (PSB) that may not rise to a criminal offense, but cause harm to themselves and those around them. A significant number of these adolescents also have histories of their own trauma; yet there are no treatment models that integrate both PSB and trauma into one comprehensive treatment for this population. This qualitative study’s aim was to use the expertise of clinicians who work with adolescents with PSB as well as clients and their caregivers who had completed PSB treatment to understand what they believe are the necessary components and elements needed for an integrated model that seeks to simultaneously address both PSB and the consequences of traumatic experiences. Twenty-six mental health professionals and one former client and his caregiver participated in focus groups (three with clinicians and one with the caregiver and former client) to share their experiences and expertise regarding an integrated model. The thematic analysis procedure yielded six major themes: family, external systems, treatment structure, therapeutic themes, specialized PSB targets, and trauma and PSB integration. Each of these major themes was comprised of subthemes that are presented as well. Implications for practice and future research are discussed, including that clinicians could benefit from guidance and structure to assist them in structuring their interventions to address the multiple needs of their clients that seek to reduce their risk of reoffending while simultaneously enhancing the quality of their lives.

Despite robust research linking trauma events to the commission of sexual harm by youth, the majority of victims do not become victimizers, imploring us to study potential interceding influences. Some research indicates that intermediary factors like attachment characteristics, trauma symptomatology, and executive functioning may be critical in understanding sexual harm committed by youth. This study explored relationships between trauma events, trauma symptoms, and attachment characteristics, and their relationship to executive functioning in a sample of 196 youth who committed sexual harm. Results revealed bivariate associations between trauma events, symptomatology, and maternal attachment characteristics. Structural equation modeling revealed numerous direct and indirect effects on the path to deficits in executive functioning, and that sexual abuse, above and beyond other forms of traumatic events, contributed to executive functioning deficits via trauma symptoms. The results are contextualized and implications are discussed.

Emerging adulthood (EA) is a time of self-exploration as new opportunities for independence and autonomy arise. Yet, for some youth, this may also contribute to instability, uncertainty, and anxiety. Consequently, evidence suggests that rates of exposure to various forms of violence increase in EA. This study examined changes in experiences of bullying and sexual violence (SV) victimization among a sample of post-high school emerging adults who were exposed to a primary prevention program, Sources of Strength (Sources). We also examined whether Sources skills (e.g., healthy coping and help-seeking) buffer against these experiences. Participants were 102 emerging adults (73.5% identifying as female, 36.3% as Latinx, and 22.6% as LGBQ), who completed surveys at three time points: 1 month prior to graduation and at 6- and 12-months post-graduation. Results suggest that as youth transition into emerging adulthood, experiences of bullying victimization were relatively low and slightly decreased whereas experiences of SV were also relatively low, but stable over time. Notably, bullying victimization was lower when female-identifying participants, relative to males, had higher levels of healthy coping. In addition, SV victimization for participants identifying as non-white was higher at lower levels of coping than those identifying as white; however, at higher levels of coping, non-white participants reported lower rates of SV victimization, while rates were relatively stable for white participants at high and low levels of coping. These findings provide some support for the Sources program model where engaging in healthy coping may protect young women from bullying exposure and buffer against SV victimization for racial and ethnic minoritized young adults. Implications for violence prevention are discussed.

Among youth who commit sexual crimes, childhood trauma experiences have been linked to a host of outcomes including trauma symptom expression. Furthermore, research has begun assessing differential rates of cumulative adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) between youth who commit sexual and non-sexual crimes. Yet, few studies have comparatively examined rates of cumulative traumatic events using more robust measures of adversity. There is scant research on outcomes associated cumulative trauma among youth who commit sexual crimes including linkages to trauma symptoms and how positive parenting styles (PCSs) can attenuate in this relationship. This study aims to compare cumulative trauma experiences between youth who commit sexual ( n = 112) and non-sexual crimes ( n = 224). Among youth who commit sexual crimes, we test how PCSs mitigate or moderate the effects of cumulative trauma on trauma symptoms. Results from independent samples t-tests revealed significant group differences on singular and cumulative traumatic experiences, and trauma symptomatology, where youth who commit sexual crimes had higher rates of all. Stepwise linear regressions revealed mitigating effects of maternal PCSs and tests of moderation revealed main and interaction effects, where intermediate positive maternal caregiving styles for youth with higher cumulative trauma were associated with greater trauma symptomatology. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Youth involved in the juvenile justice system (JJS) have high rates of trauma relative to youth in the general population. Criminological research has posited that callous traits are some of the most prominent risk factors associated with onset and recidivistic criminal behavior. It stands to reason that research should test intermediary variables explaining the connection between cumulative trauma and risks for criminal behavior to better isolate trauma-driven determinants of callous traits. This study employs a structural equation model to test the connections between cumulative trauma, trauma symptoms, behavioral regulation, and callous traits among a sample of JJS involved youth ( N = 336). Results revealed there was not a direct relationship between cumulative trauma and callous traits, but there were mediated effects of the variables in portions of the model; the developmental risks resulting from cumulative trauma, specifically trauma symptoms and behavioral regulation increase the likelihood for callous traits. Implications are discussed.

Early life adversity has long been associated with the onset and course of criminal behavior and juvenile justice involvement. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of research on the differential experiences of early life trauma and trauma symptomology among justice involved youth of color who are ubiquitously overrepresented in the juvenile justice system (JJS). Conventional trauma instruments used in the JJS may yield limited cultural relevance or applicability to racially minoritized justice involved youth as they rarely capture concepts of race-based trauma. While research has explored the relative effects of racial trauma above and beyond other traumatic experiences among minoritized youth in the JJS, differential trauma experiences and differential effects between trauma and delinquency among racial groups have not been extensively explored. Conducting multivariate analysis of variance with appropriate post hoc tests and bivariate correlations, the results revealed significant mean differences between racial groups on experiences of early life trauma via conventional trauma instruments; white youth reported higher rates of trauma events including cumulative trauma, relative to black and Hispanic youth, but had similar rates of trauma symptoms relative to black youth. Furthermore, while there were no racial group differences on reports of delinquency, there were vastly different trauma-based risk correlates by racial group; white youth had several trauma indicators associated with delinquency, whereas black and Hispanic youth had no associations. Results suggest conventional trauma instruments have limited cultural and racial relevancy for minoritized justice involved youth. Implications are identified for intersectional youth participatory action approaches to instrument development centered on discovering raced-based traumatic stress among racially minoritized justice involved youth.

Objective: Children exposed to maltreatment are a vulnerable population with disproportionately high rates of adverse outcomes, including internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Parental risk characteristics, such as poor mental health, may help to explain the health and developmental trajectories of children who have experienced maltreatment. This study examined the hypothesis that specific parenting behaviors mediate the association between parental mental health and children’s behavioral health outcomes among families investigated for maltreatment. Method: We used data from parent interviews from Waves 1 and 3 of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being II (N = 1,192) to measure parenting behavior pathways from parental mental health to children’s behavioral health. Results: Path analyses indicated statistically significant direct effects of poor parental mental health on neglectful, psychologically aggressive, and physically assaultive parenting and on children’s internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. We found statistically significant indirect effects from poor parental mental health to internalizing behavior problems through neglectful and psychologically aggressive parenting, and from poor parental mental health to externalizing behavior problems through psychologically aggressive parenting. Conclusion: Results suggest that specific parenting behaviors partially mediate the relationship between parental mental health and children’s behavioral health outcomes. Findings suggest the need to target specific parenting behaviors to reduce children’s internalizing and externalizing behavior problems and promote health and development across generations.

There are demonstrated links in the general population between developmental adversity, associated trauma symptoms, and executive functioning difficulties in children and youth. However, research on links among these indicators and their relationship to antisocial behavior more broadly in samples of youth who have sexually harmed is only beginning to emerge. Some research indicates that intermediary factors like sexual concerns may be critical in understanding this population. This study explored relationships between trauma symptoms, sexual concerns, executive functioning, and their relationship to non-sexual delinquency in a sample of 196 youth who committed sexual harm. Structural equation modeling revealed numerous direct and indirect effects on the path to delinquency and that executive functioning plays a key role among those with serious sexual concerns. The results are contextualized and implications are discussed.

The aim of this study was to empirically examine the theoretical model proposed by Grady, Levenson, and Bolder used to explain the relationships between experiencing trauma, attachment styles, and risk factors associated with sexual offending. The specific risk factors tested were emotional, behavioral, and cognitive regulation deficits. The research questions were as follows: (1) What specific childhood traumatic experiences (physical and sexual abuse and/or other domestic trauma events) are associated with anxious-ambivalent and anxious-avoidant attachments? (2) Are anxious-ambivalent and anxious-avoidant attachment styles differentially linked to dysregulation outcomes (emotional, behavioral and cognitive shift, and inhibitions)? (3) Do insecure attachment styles explain why childhood trauma is associated with dysregulation? and (4) Do these early life experiences contribute to sexual offending behavior? The sample included 200 male youth adjudicated for either a sexual or nonsexual crime and living in the community or a residential facility. The average age of the youth was 17.17 years (SD = 1.81 years). Structural equation modeling was used to determine the direct and indirect relationships between abuse and traumatic experiences, anxious-avoidant and ambivalent-anxious attachment styles, and regulation deficits. Authors found a direct relationship between physical abuse and both of the attachment styles, separately. Both anxious-ambivalent and anxious-avoidant attachment styles related similarly to regulation deficits. Separately, anxious-ambivalent and anxious-avoidant attachment styles served as mediators between physical abuse and regulation deficits. Sexual abuse predicted the later commission of sexual crimes with no influence from attachment style. Finally, domestic trauma independently predicted regulation deficits in the model that included anxious-ambivalent attachment but had no effect on deficits in the model that included anxious-avoidant attachment. Implications for treatment include the need to consider using attachment-based interventions and prevention strategies, and a trauma-informed approach when working with justice involved youth. Suggestions for future research are also discussed.

Background Gatekeeper training (GKT) is a common strategy in suicide prevention that educates informal helpers (e.g., friends) about warning signs and risk factors for suicide as well as strategies to support distressed peers. Sources of Strength ( Sources ) is an effective intervention model that combines GKT with school-wide prevention activities and relies on trained gatekeepers— peer leaders —to diffuse intervention elements into their social networks to reduce peer distress and promote wellness. Objective The present study identified internal characteristics of peer leaders that make them successful gatekeepers for Sources and explored how Sources skills are successfully transmitted into peer leader networks. Method Using qualitative interview data from two cohorts of peer leaders, we investigated diffusion and intervention efforts during high school and in post-high school environments. Results Results support the use of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in understanding behavioral precursors that encourage effective gatekeeping (GK) behavior. Findings also suggest that Sources diffusion was robust in high school but declined post-high school. However, there were important inherent characteristics that appeared to spur greater uptake of Sources’ GKT, including optimism, empathy, kindness, and extraversion. Conclusions TPB offers well-defined constructs that can be targeted to promote GK behavior in the context of Sources or similar suicide prevention programming. Specific internal traits may reinforce gatekeepers’ behavioral intentions, which then may support greater engagement in GK behavior. However, declines in GK behavior may occur over time, which suggests post-high school booster activities may be important to offset such declines.

Child maltreatment and involvement in the child welfare system are linked to numerous adverse health and behavioral outcomes for children. However, there is some variability in children's health, suggesting that protective factors may attenuate child maltreatment risks. Specific protective factors, such as social support networks and receipt of health services, may be important for children in the child welfare system. Further study is needed on how these protective factors can mitigate salient risks associated with child welfare involvement, including caregiver substance use, mental health, and physical health that are linked to children's long-term health and behavioral outcomes. Using the National Survey for Child and Adolescent Well-Being II (NSCAW II) dataset (N = 5872), this longitudinal study uses three successive step-wise multiple and ordered logistic regression models to investigate the relative effects of the timing of social supports and receipt of health services in the relationship between exposure to caregiver risk characteristics and children's internalizing and externalizing problems, and health outcome among children investigated for maltreatment. Results revealed social support mitigated effects of poor physical and mental health on children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors in wave 1 and mitigated poor physical health on internalizing behaviors at wave 3. Social support also mitigated effects of poor mental health on children's health outcomes at wave 1. Results suggest the need for timely and responsive health services in the child welfare system.