Recent studies suggest that juvenile-justice-involved youth have high levels of trauma exposure, and that trauma correlates with psychiatric disorders. We assessed the relationships between trauma, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, substance abuse, and resiliency factors in a population of justice-involved youth in New Hampshire (NH) and Ohio. We screened 350 youth at 5 NH family courts, the NH juvenile detention center, NH residential treatment facilities, and at one Ohio county juvenile court. The Web-based screen measured trauma, PTSD, depression, substance abuse, and resiliency factors. Ninety-four percent reported at least 1 trauma; the mean was 5.4. Screening showed 45.7% of youth positive for PTSD, 49.4% for depression, 61.2% for substance abuse, and 26.3% positive for all 3 disorders. Trauma exposure was significantly correlated with PTSD (p Ͻ .001), depression (p Ͻ .001), and substance abuse (p ϭ .009). Juveniles reporting 5.4 traumas had almost 8 times the probability of PTSD compared with those reporting 1 trauma, 7 times the likelihood of depression, and over 6 times the likelihood of substance abuse. Total resiliency score was not a moderator, but one subscale (Involvement) significantly moderated depression (p ϭ .036) and showed a trend to moderate PTSD (p ϭ .102). Results support recent findings reporting high levels of trauma exposure and related psychiatric disorders in juvenile-justice-involved youth. Multiply traumatized youth appear at risk for PTSD, depression, and substance use disorder. The apparent moderating effects of one resiliency subscale on depression and PTSD should be further explored.

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Youth with a pattern of aggression and emotional disturbance have well-described problems in a school setting. It is not known which particular psychosocial features of such high-risk populations best predict educational problems or progress. Comprehensive assessment of psychosocial resilience by inventorying known risk and protective factors has been shown to predict outcome in a variety of life domains in naturalistic, longitudinal studies of resilient high-risk children. In this study, we analyzed a number of risk and protective factors that were potentially predictive of educational progress in the male Willie M. population, a North Carolina group of youth with severe aggression and emotional disturbance. We found that several psychosocial protective factors, including good problem-solving skills, reading at or above grade level, ability to get along with peers and adults, likability, sense of humor, and having an adult mentor at school, were associated with positive educational progress. Substance use and living at home with the natural family were shown to have deleterious effects on school progress. The total number of protective factors was significantly associated with educational progress, whereas the total number of risk factors was unrelated to progress. These findings may have important implications for designing educational interventions for youth with emotional and behavioral disorders.

Community mentoring is a rapidly growing movement that affiliates high-risk youth with healthy adult role models from outside their immediate families. This chapter looks at the notion of mentoring, discusses the rationale for this type of intervention, and describes a model of community mentoring designed to enhance psychosocial resiliency in high-risk youth. Research evidence for the effectiveness of mentoring as an intervention strategy for youth with severe emotional disorders is examined.