“It Changed My Life”: Traumatic Loss,Behavioral Health,and Turning Points Among Gang-Involved and Justice-Involved Youth

Abstract

An especially vulnerable population to traumatic loss, violence exposure, and posttraumatic stress symptoms are those involved in the juvenile justice system. However, justice-involved youth are not a homogeneous group. Research looking at subpopulations within juvenile justice systems highlight the diverse backgrounds and treatment needs of justice-involved youth such as those who are also gang-involved. The current study seeks to address the interrelated issues of behavioral health, traumatic grief, loss, and self-reported turning points among a sample of formerly incarcerated youth who report extensive juvenile justice histories (N = 62). All youth participated in an extensive survey interview. Just over half (56.5%) of the youth reported being gang-involved. Chi-square analyses revealed that gang- and justice-involved youth were significantly more likely to have experienced traumatic loss compared with their justice-only peers (χ² = 4.265, p < .05). Gang involvement approximately doubled youth’s exposure to community violence, both direct and witnessed, and there were significant differences in the levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms and substance use, between the gang- and justice-involved youth compared with the justice-only youth. When asked to describe a turning point in their lives, 15% of the sample described significant loss and how it affected their lives, for better or worse. Findings lend support for a focus on supporting posttraumatic growth and increasing access to trauma-focused treatment, with an emphasis on grief and loss, for those who are both gang- and justice-involved.