Collaborative Proposal: Adolescent Social Development During Incarceration

青少年监禁使年轻人在社会发展的重要时期离开了他们的家、学校和社区。监禁不仅使青少年与典型的社交来源(如家庭、朋友、导师、教师、教练)隔绝，增加了受到反社会影响的机会(如狱友)，而且还减少了青少年参与传统社交的机会。本研究考察了青少年监禁对青少年社会性发展和社会关系质量的影响。此外，这项研究将探索这种社交功能中断可能对青少年的心理健康和未来的犯罪行为产生的潜在连锁反应。从这项研究中获得的信息可以为少年司法政策和少年监禁做法的变化提供信息，以减少监禁对社会发展的负面影响。该项目包括对大约300名青少年(13-17岁)进行的为期两年的纵向研究。该样本将包括三组不同的青少年：1)被监禁的青少年，2)被判处社区缓刑的青少年，以及3)未被逮捕的社区青少年。参与者将在与监禁相关的变量(例如，年龄、种族、社会经济地位、性别、既往行为)上进行统计匹配，以允许对社会发展、关系质量、心理健康症状和冒犯行为的群体水平差异做出推断，并控制匹配结构上先前存在的差异。参与者将完成7次结构化访谈和为期5周的每日日记评估，内容涉及他们的社交能力、社会关系、心理健康症状和犯罪行为。还将向所有涉及司法公正的参与者提供随后违法行为的正式记录。这项拟议的研究是第一项直接揭示青少年监禁对青少年社会发展的潜在影响的同类研究。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Juvenile incarceration removes young people from their homes, schools, and communities during a period of substantial social development. Incarceration not only isolates adolescents from typical sources of socialization (e.g., family, friends, mentors, teachers, coaches) and increases exposure to antisocial influences (e.g., fellow inmates), but also reduces adolescents' opportunities to engage in traditional social interactions. This research examines the effects of juvenile incarceration on adolescents' social development and social relationship quality. Further, the study will explore potential ripple effects that such disruptions to social functioning may have on adolescents' mental health and future offending. The information garnered from this study may inform changes to juvenile justice policies and juvenile incarceration practices to reduce negative effects of incarceration on social development.This project consists of a longitudinal study of approximately 300 adolescents (13-17 years) across a period of two years. This sample will consist of three distinct groups of adolescents: 1) incarcerated adolescents, 2) adjudicated adolescents sentenced to community probation, and 3) community adolescents with no prior arrests. Participants will be statistically matched across the three groups on variables associated with incarceration (e.g., age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, prior behavior) to allow for inferences to be made about group-level differences in social development, relationship quality, mental health symptoms, and offending behavior, controlling for pre-existing differences on matched constructs. Participants will complete 7 structured interviews and five weeks of daily diary assessments about their social competence, social relationships, mental health symptoms, and criminal offending behavior. Official records of subsequent offending will also be provided for all justice-involved participants. The proposed research is the first study of its kind to directly disentangle the potential effects of juvenile incarceration on adolescent social development.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.