Citation

Marshall K, Abate A, Venata A. J. Child Adolesc. Trauma 2020; 13(1): 33-43.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX 77341 USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s40653-018-0234-8

PMID

32318226

PMCID

PMC7163860

Abstract

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.

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018.

Language: en

Keywords

Aggression; Decision-making; Future orientation; Juveniles; Recidivism; Trauma