The Relationship between Abusive Experiences and Staff Controls in Juvenile Correctional Facilities: The Mediating Effects of Externalizing Behavior

Background and Purpose: To maintain safety and order, some correctional settings permit the use of controls on incarcerated youth in response to behavioral problems; however, use of controls may exacerbate effects of early victimization that many youths bring to the carceral experience.  This study integrated general strain, importation and deprivation theories to test three hypotheses: (1) youth with a history of physical, sexual and emotional abuse will report greater use of staff controls; (2) externalizing behaviors will partially mediate this relationship; and (3) externalizing behavior and staff controls will be mutually reinforcing. 

Methods: Participants in this study were drawn from the Survey of Youth in Residential Placement (SYRP; Sedlak, 2003).  The study’s nationally representative sample is comprised of 7,073 pre-and post-adjudicated youth, who ranged in age from 10 to 20 years old, and resided in 204 state and local juvenile facilities.  Cross sectional surveys were delivered between March and June in 2003 with the use of an audio computer-assisted self-interview software program. 

The SYRP survey reflects a combination of items taken from standardized instruments and others deemed important to stakeholders by the SYRP advisory board and team members, as well as OJJDP (Sedlak, 2010; Sedlak et al., 2012).  Variable selection for this study was done in a way to preserve temporal order and parse out the individual effects of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.  Three observed exogenous variables were chosen to represent abusive experiences.  Additional items were pooled to create three endogenous latent constructs that reflected externalizing behavior and staff methods of physical control and isolation.  Demographic variables were used as controls. 

Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data using Mplus v.7.4.  To test the integrated theory, two sequential models were run: the main model (H₁ and H₂) and the reciprocal model (H₃).  Weights were assigned to the data to account for differences in sampling based on facility size, gender, and race/ethnicity.

Results: Hypotheses 1 and 2 were partially supported: Physical and sexual abuse were statistically significantly related (p < .05) to increased use of physical and isolating controls by juvenile correctional facility staff.  Externalizing behaviors partially mediated the model for physical and emotional abuse. Physical abuse (β = .035 (.007)) and emotional abuse (β = .040 (.005)) had statistically significant indirect effects (p < .001) on staff physical controls.  Likewise, physical abuse (β = .038 (.006)) and emotional abuse (β = .043 (.007) had statistically significant indirect effects ((p < .001) on staff isolating controls.  Hypothesis 3 was supported: There were statistically significant (p < .01) mutually reinforcing relationships between staff controls and externalizing behaviors.

Conclusions and Implications: Youths’ externalizing behaviors explain some, but not all, of the relationship between early abusive experiences and the use of staff controls. It is possible that staff controls may perpetuate youths’ victimization experiences and exacerbate trauma symptoms.  Such findings warrant caution for institutional policies and staff practices that promote the use of control.  Instead, organizations should consider implementing change models that incorporate trauma-informed responses to misbehavior into regular practice.