Risk-Taking and Self-Regulation

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the juvenile justice intervention literature for the statistical consideration given the impact that age, as a marker of neuropsychosocial development, may have on delinquency outcomes. A systematic review of 117 studies published between 1996 and 2009 was conducted to assess the methods by which curvilinear and moderating effects of age were included in the analysis of delinquency outcomes. ninety-one percent of studies may have underestimated intervention effects through the misspecification of the effect of age on delinquency outcomes. of the 10 studies that did test for curvilinear and interaction effects, 80% had findings consistent with neuropsychosocial theories of age on delinquency.To account for age effects on delinquency, the regular use of multiple age groups in analysis may increase both the precision with which intervention effects are measured and the identification of specific age groups with whom individual interventions are most effective.

Multidimensional Predictors of Treatment Outcome in Usual Care for Adolescent Conduct Problems and Substance Use

“…As hypothesized, demographic characteristics produced relatively few significant effects effects, with some indication that older adolescents benefited more from treatment (see Evans-Chase et al, 2013). Also as hypothesized, baseline symptom severity was the strongest predictor overall, the only one to show large effect sizes in the multivariate models for both delinquency and substance use.…”

“…African Americans, and youth reporting higher delinquency at baseline, showed relatively greater declines across the board. Also, older and male teens showed increasing abstinence from delinquency over time compared to younger and female teens, respectively (as in Evans-Chase et al, 2013). For SU outcomes, developmental psychopathology variables were prevalent, with greater levels of baseline depression and behavioral dysregulation predicting greater reductions in use across the board.…”

“…Whereas some individual studies have reported superior outcomes for Hispanic Americans with conduct (Clair et al, 2013) or drug use problems (Robbins et al, 2008), others find evidence-based treatment to be equally effective across ethnic groups (see Henggeler & Sheidow, 2012). Of note, Evans-Chase, Kim, and Zhou (2013) persuasively argue that modeling age as a continuous variable when testing age-outcome correlations effectively masks the normative spike in risk-taking that occurs during mid-adolescence, when self-regulation is comparatively underdeveloped (see Steinberg, 2010). Their review of 117 studies of juvenile diversion programs suggests that when age variables are properly stratified, outcomes are stronger for participants in late-teenage years than for those in mid-teenage years.…”