Exploring Trauma-related Needs of Incarcerated Youthful and Young Adult Offenders

Book excerpt: Objective: An alarmingly high number of incarcerated juvenile and young adult offenders self-report experiences of psychosocial trauma in early childhood. Trauma symptoms have been shown to alter emotional response systems in individuals and this experience can increase the prevalence of substance use, poor school performance, and violent delinquency in this population (Fitzgerald et al., 2018; Ford, 2012). Studies have also identified connections between trauma, mindfulness, and emotion regulation; it is possible that trauma symptomology affects both mindfulness and emotional regulation, which could fuel delinquent behavior. The overarching goal of the present study is to explore the needs of this population in the context of self-reported traumatic childhood experiences by developing an understanding of how these experiences and related symptomology are linked to emotion regulation in adolescence and early adulthood. Further, the research team intends to investigate whether mindfulness serves as a mediator and point of potential opportunity for intervention to reduce emotion dysregulation for incarcerated youth. Methods: A comprehensive survey, utilizing fifteen standardized instruments, was administered to adolescent and young adult inmates at the SCI-Pine Grove correctional facility (N=125). For the purpose of this study, the scales included in models were the Traumatic Events Screening Inventory (TESI), Child PTSD Symptom Scale (CPSS), Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (ER). A linear stepwise regression was performed to see how these various predictors interact with the outcome of interest, emotion dysregulation. In addition, mindfulness was tested to determine whether it mediates the primary relationship using the Sobel Test. Results: The results reveal a significant correlation between mindfulness and trauma exposure, trauma symptoms, and emotion regulation. The stepwise regression shows that both PTSD symptoms and mindfulness are significantly associated with emotion regulation. Together they explained 31.3% of the variance observed in emotion regulation (R2 = .31, F(85,84) = 19.11, p