118. Perceived Discrimination, Experiences of Trauma, and Psychological Functioning Among Juvenile Court-involved Youth

Juvenile court-involved youth (JCIY) experience higher rates of mental health concerns and less access to services compared to youth without court involvement. JCIY have unique health needs due to experiences of trauma, discrimination, and other structural inequities; however, our understanding of how these factors may impact psychological functioning continues to evolve. We sought to explore relationships between perceived discrimination, experiences of trauma, and various measures of psychological functioning among a cohort of JCIY to inform tailored behavioral health services and interventions to buffer the impact of incarceration. We hypothesized that JCIY with greater perceived discrimination and experiences of trauma would exhibit higher psychological distress and increased challenges related to emotion regulation and processing. JCIY enrolled in one of several community-based monitoring programs completed cross-sectional surveys as part of an evaluation of a longitudinal mindfulness intervention. Youth were referred through existing community partnerships or directly by probation officers. Surveys asked young people to report perceived discrimination (10 items) and experiences of trauma (10 items) by indicating “yes” or “no” to each item. Dichotomous responses were summed to generate a summary score. Psychological measures included: mindfulness (10 items), resilience (9 items), future orientation (7 items), difficulties in emotion regulation (18 items), psychological distress (6 items), and psychological inflexibility (7 items). Scores were summarized by calculating the sum (mindfulness, psychological inflexibility, psychological distress) or mean (resilience, future orientation, difficulties in emotion regulation) across Likert-type items. Demographic characteristics were summarized with means/standard deviations and frequencies/proportions for continuous and categorical variables, respectively. Multivariable linear regression models separately examined associations between perceived discrimination, experiences of trauma, and each psychological measure, adjusting for age, gender identity, and race/ethnicity. A total of 99 youth completed surveys. Mean age was 16.2 (SD: 1.4) years. The majority (n=85, 86%) were male. Most (n=60, 61%) identified as Black/African-American, with fewer reporting White (n=17, 17%) and other (n=14, 14%) racial identities. Perceived discrimination was common. Seventy-seven youth (78%) reported at least one type of discrimination, with a mean of 5.8 (SD: 3.3) types per youth. Many (n=74, 75%) reported exposure to trauma, with an average of 3.1 (SD: 2.7) experiences per youth. Greater perceived discrimination was significantly associated with higher psychological inflexibility (β: 0.84 [95%CI: 0.10, 1.58]). Experiences of trauma were significantly associated with lower psychological distress (β: -0.93 [95%CI: -1.56, -0.31]) and greater difficulties in emotion regulation (β: 0.07 [95%CI: 0.01, 0.14]). No significant relationships emerged between perceived discrimination, experiences of trauma, and other psychological measures in adjusted models. We demonstrate significant associations between perceived discrimination, experiences of trauma, and several key measures of psychological functioning among JCIY. Unlike other studies linking discrimination and trauma with psychological distress, we note that JCIY with such experiences actually endorse lower symptomatology. Findings suggest that JCIY may adopt unique mechanisms of psychological coping and adaptation that require healing-centered approaches to address. Future work should consider evaluation of tailored assessments for emotional health to better support psychological well-being among this population.