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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the factor structure of the Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents (RSCA, Prince-Embury, 2006, 2007) and to provide supporting evidence that this is a psychometrically sound measure for practitioners and researchers to use to assess resilience in incarcerated male adolescent offenders in the UK. Design/methodology/approach Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to determine if the factor structure could be replicated among incarcerated male adolescent offenders. Concurrent validation of the measure was also conducted, utilising the Beck Youth Inventory, second edition (BYI-II-II; Beck et al., 2005). Findings CFA of the RSCA was unable to confirm the structure of the measure at an item level, therefore parcelling techniques were utilised similarly to Prince-Embury and Courville (2008), using the subscales for the factors as indicators for the factors. While a three-factor model was found to be an acceptable fit to the data, there was also some support for a two-factor model. Despite this, there was more statistical support for the three-factor model and arguments are made for retaining this structure. Expected associations between the three subscales of sense of mastery, sense of relatedness and emotional reactivity were found with the Beck Youth Inventory demonstrating support for the concurrent validity of the measure in incarcerated male adolescent offenders. Practical implications This paper provides support for the internal structure of the RSCA with incarcerated male adolescent offenders within the UK, although some caution should be used when interpreting scores from the subscales. The findings suggest that the RSCA can be utilised by practitioners to identify young people who may benefit from additional support and also in assessment and treatment/intervention planning. This may be particularly useful when practitioners wish to explore the potential protective nature of resilience. Originality/value The current study is the first of its kind to formally explore the factor structure of the RSCA with incarcerated male adolescent offenders.

Objective The study's aim was to explore and describe adolescent offenders' experiences of their fathers' involvement before and during their own incarceration in a South African context. Background Research on father involvement is focused predominantly on adult offenders' experiences of father involvement without emphasis on adolescents' experiences regarding father involvement, including in a South African context. Methods A qualitative explorative‐descriptive research design was employed. A nonprobability, purposive sampling technique was used, and the sample size was determined through data saturation. The sample included nine male adolescents between the ages of 17 and 19 years from a correctional center in Pretoria, South Africa. Semistructured individual interviews and drawings made by participants were used as the data collection methods and data were analyzed thematically. Results Two main themes with subthemes were identified: Experiences of father absence before and/or during incarceration and desires for and suggestions to improve father involvement. Conclusion The findings are primarily indicative of the general lack of father involvement and fatherly support experienced by participants. Implications The findings highlight the need for adolescent offenders to have access to counseling or therapy and intervention programs suitable for juvenile correctional centers focusing specifically on providing young, incarcerated, male adolescents with paternal role models that can help foster a sense of ethical and moral guidance and provision of different forms of support. Father intervention programs including men's talks, motivational speaking, and psychoeducational programs to advise fathers on how to be more involved in their children's lives are recommended.

This study focuses on understanding the relationship between moral disengagement mechanisms in adolescents who engage in law-breaking activities and those who violate school norms. To do so, we administered the Mechanisms of Moral Disengagement Scale (MMDS), which evaluates moral justification, euphemistic labeling, advantageous comparison, deflection of responsibility, diffusion of responsibility, distortion of consequences, dehumanization, and attribution of blame, to 366 adolescents (60.1% males (n = 220) and 39.9% females (n = 146)). Our results confirmed the hypothesis that law-breaking adolescents presented a higher degree of moral disengagement than those adolescents who violate school norms. Additionally, we found that adolescents who violated school norms displayed significantly higher levels of dehumanization than the controls, and law-breaking adolescents obtained the highest score in this domain. Our findings allow us to suggest that the presence of the dehumanization mechanism in adolescents who violate school norms could be used as an early indicator of the emergence of antisocial behaviors, since this was the only component of moral disengagement that significantly differentiated this group from the controls in the study.

Social emotions require the correct integration of emotional, cognitive, and social processes and are critical for complex social interactions. Adolescent criminal offenders (AOs) show abnormalities in the experience of basic emotions. However, most research has focused solely on basic emotions, neglecting complex social emotions that could be critical for social reintegration. The purpose of this study was to investigate the behavioral and neural correlates of social emotions (envy and Schadenfreude ) in AOs. We explored the experience of complex social emotions, as well as their anatomical correlates, in AOs ( n = 19) and a nonoffenders control group (NOs, n = 20). Additionally, we assessed the relationship between social emotions, executive functions (EFs), and fluid intelligence (FI). Structural brain imaging was obtained in all participants. The results showed that AOs had significantly lower envy and Schadenfreude ratings and exhibited lower performance in EFs compared with NOs. The measurement of EFs relied on the INECO frontal screening (IFS). Experiencing fewer social emotions was associated with diminished EFs but not with FI. Moreover, in AOs, reduced levels of envy and Schadenfreude were linked with reduced gray matter volumes in regions subserving mentalizing abilities (inferior parietal lobe and precuneus) and socioemotional processing (inferior and middle temporal regions), as well as key hubs of the executive frontoparietal network (inferior parietal lobule, orbital and rectus gyri). Additional analysis on the AOs revealed no associations between the type of crime and our variables of interest (EFs, FI and social emotions). Our findings are the first to provide evidence on abnormalities in the experience of social emotions in AOs that are associated with neurocognitive markers of social cognition and EFs. Understanding social emotions and their abnormalities (under-experience) as complex intertwined processes may have important future translational implications, including risk prediction for social adaptation/reintegration, sociocognitive targeted interventions, and skill training for social emotions in vulnerable populations.

The study of prosocial behavior, from the cognitive-evolutive approach, has indicated that moral reasoning is the basis of prosocial decisions. Advances in the study of decision-making have shown that there are other factors associated with rational capacity that affect prosocial decision-making. The role of rational decision-making is an aspect that has received little attention from this perspective and could be relevant to explaining prosocial behaviors. This study examines whether rational decision-making is a potential mediator between empathy and prosocial behavior in offenders adolescents. A total of 413 Colombian adolescent offenders aged 14 to 18 years (Mage = 16.67, SD = 1.05, 17.4% were girls) participated in the study. They belonged to Colombia’s four regions (Antioquia, Caldas, Cundinamarca, and Bogotá, the Capital District). Empathy, decision-making, and prosocial behavior were assessed with self-reports. Confirmatory factor analysis of the scales used, descriptive, correlational, predictive, and mediation analyses were performed. The results indicated positive relationships between the variables empathy, rational decision-making, and prosocial behavior. In the mediation analyses, empathic concern and personal distress were the background variables with the greatest effect on prosocial behavior when mediated by rational decision-making. The results indicate that having greater rational decision-making ability may help adolescent offenders display prosocial behaviors. Results, limitations, and practical implications for adolescent counseling are discussed, and future research suggestions are made.

Adolescents who break the law have experienced situations that increase the likelihood of becoming involved in criminal activities such as drug use, gang involvement, adverse economic conditions, among others. All this, added to their stage of human development, which is characterized by physical, cognitive, social and emotional changes, can lead them to have deficiencies in their cognitive processes and at the same time present educational difficulties. The purpose of this study is to evaluate different cognitive processes of these adolescents in comparison to a control group with similar characteristics but who have not committed any crime and whose education has not been interrupted. For this purpose, were included (n = 62) adolescent offenders and (n = 62) adolescent non-offenders of male sex and aged 14 to 18 years was taken. Basic sociodemographic data on their education and psychoactive substance use were collected, as well as cognitive data with tests such as Ineco Frontal Screening for executive functions, Montreal Cognitive Assessment for general functions, among others. The results showed significant differences in executive functions, attentional processes, memory and language. These difficulties can be key to school performance, therefore, educational interventions adapted to these adolescents are suggested.

This study investigated whether drug dealing juvenile offenders in Belgium differ from non-drug dealers in levels of violent and non-violent offending behaviors, aggression, substance use, and mental health needs. The current study examined data from 226 16- to 17-year-old male juvenile offenders. Information relating to drug dealing, substance use, and mental health needs were collected through self-report questionnaires. A structured diagnostic interview was used to collect information about past violent and non-violent behaviors. Chi-square tests and multivariate analysis of variance compared non-dealers and dealers and explored if hard-drug dealers and soft-drug dealers differed from each other. Relative to non-drug dealers, drug dealers engaged in more violent offending behaviors, exhibited higher levels of aggression, substance use and oppositional defiant problems, and displayed lower levels of anxiety. Soft- and hard-drug dealers did not differ from each other. To conclude, detained drug dealers are characterized by severe antisocial behavior.

The present study investigates how visitation from parents impacts youths' mental health in the first two months of incarceration in a secure juvenile facility. A diverse sample of 276 male, newly incarcerated serious adolescent offenders (14-17 years) was interviewed over a 60-day period. Results indicate that youth who receive visits from parents report more rapid declines in depressive symptoms over time compared to youth who do not receive parental visits. Moreover, these effects are cumulative, such that the greater number of visits from parents, the greater the decrease in depressive symptoms. Importantly, the protective effect of receiving parental visits during incarceration exists regardless of the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship. Policy changes that facilitate visitation may be key for easing adjustment during the initial period of incarceration.

Research on adolescents suggests that decision-making styles, emotional experiences, and life satisfaction play a crucial role in emotional and behavioral difficulties and the development of prosocial behaviors. This study analyzed the relationship between decision-making styles, prosociality, and difficulties among adolescent offenders, as well as the mediating role of life satisfaction and emotional experiences in this relationship. A total of 457 adolescents aged from 14 to 19 years (M = 16.23; S.D. = 1.31; 32.2% female) participated in this study. The variables of interest were assessed using self-reports and descriptive, reliability, correlational, predictive, and mediation analyses were performed. A significant association was found between the study variables. Non-rational decision-making styles and negative emotional experiences influenced difficulties, whereas rational decision-making, life satisfaction, and positive emotional experiences influenced prosocial behavior. Furthermore, the results show that the relationship between rational decision-making and prosocial behavior is mediated by life satisfaction, emotional balance, and positive emotional experiences. Similarly, negative emotional experiences mediated the relationship between a hypervigilance decision-making style and emotional and behavioral difficulties. The results of this study indicate the importance of intervening in decision-making styles, emotional management, and life satisfaction in offending adolescents to decrease behavioral and emotional difficulties and favor prosocial behavior.

Purpose Despite a recent surge of interest in the role that self-identity plays in the process of desistance from crime, prior research has been mostly qualitative and conducted with small samples of adult offenders. In addition, while what people expect to become in the future can also function as motivational and sustaining forces toward prosocial behavioral outcomes, empirical tests of identity-based theories of criminal desistance have focused on the measures of current self-identity. We intend to address both gaps to expand the scope of desistance literature. Methods Drawing on 11-wave panel data of serious adolescent offenders, a modified version of negative binomial random-effects models is applied to estimate the within-individual effects of expectation of positive future selves on self-reported offending and official record of arrest. Results We found that a shift in a youth’s expectation of positive self-identity in the future is significantly related to a downward trend in both offending and arrest outcomes. This finding holds even after controlling for unobserved time-stable sources of heterogeneity and other important time-varying sources of potential confounders. Conclusions This study not only explores one of the understudied topics in the desistance literature but also provides evidence-based knowledge on which characteristics need to be addressed to initiate and maintain prosocial life styles among serious adolescent offenders.