Juvenile Justice Residential Program Employees' Perspectives on Implementing Collaborative and Proactive Solutions: A Qualitative Study

Background and Purpose: Research in juvenile justice, especially residential programs, is multifaceted in nature due to varying types of environments and populations served. While there are many studies suggesting effectiveness of various interventions among juvenile justice populations, there is a lack of research that focuses on the implementation of interventions in these settings. Given the complexity of juvenile justice and residential programs, there is a need within social research to focus on how interventions are implemented in order to adequately apply them across settings.

Collaborative and Proactive Solutions (CPS), a cognitive, skills-based behavioral modification approach for working with children with challenging behaviors, has been advocated for use with juvenile justice populations, yet studies of CPS have mostly focused on outcomes in clinical and educational settings. The lack of research on CPS in juvenile justice settings is problematic for providers who are seeking to implement this intervention with a juvenile justice population.

This qualitative, exploratory study seeks to fill the gap between intervention and implementation in juvenile justice research with the question: What has it been like to implement CPS in a residential juvenile justice setting?

 Methods: In-depth individual and dyadic interviews were conducted with nine employees of a residential program for adjudicated boys, including two directors, three therapists, one staff supervisor, and three youth workers. All participants were Caucasian, four were male, and five were female. None had experience with CPS prior to employment at this agency. Participants were recruited via face-to-face and email. The interview structure consisted of a history taking and funnel format to capture employees’ narratives of experiences around CPS within the context of their histories with the agency, reflections on what did and did not go well, and lessons learned.  All interviews were transcribed verbatim and a thematic analysis was done using a block and file approach.

Results: Findings revealed that participants experienced personal and systemic challenges in implementing CPS, had to actively work to change an organizational culture, and redefine the meaning of treatment. Participants expressed that CPS is a non-punitive technique that emphasizes empathy and developmental skill-building, which is in contrast with many underlying tenets of juvenile justice that lean toward punishment and consequences. Participants indicated that the transition to CPS in this particular setting was more challenging than expected due to philosophical tensions between the CPS model and the larger system. Participants expressed how this created unexpected challenges and opportunities in learning how to implement CPS in a way that was meaningful to youth while still providing the necessary structure for a residential program.

Conclusions and Implications:  The findings of this study are indicative of the challenges associated with implementing a new intervention, especially within a juvenile justice residential program. Social work would benefit from having more studies that focus on implementation in order to provide support to individuals and organizations that are seeking to use new interventions in a given setting.  The implications of this study are also valuable for anyone using or wanting to use CPS in a juvenile justice setting.