Psychosocial Profiles of Incarcerated African American Girls with and without a Substance Use Disorder

Background: Research has shown that the more serious a youth’s involvement in substance use, the more serious his or her involvement in delinquency, and vice versa. This finding is consistent across gender, age, and race. In addition, sustained involvement with drugs or alcohol increases the likelihood of arrest and continued contacts with the juvenile justice system, and continued contacts increase the likelihood of being committed to secure facilities, where African American youth are disproportionately overrepresented. While African American boys are more likely than Caucasian boys to be committed to a secure placement, African American girls are more likely to be committed to a secure facility than Asian, Caucasian, and Hispanic girls. Despite this, less is known about the psychosocial characteristics of incarcerated African American girls. Thus, the primary objective of this study was to examine the psychosocial profiles of a state-based sample of incarcerated African Americans with and without a substance use disorder.

Methods: Profile analysis, the repeated measures extension of multivariate analysis of variance, was conducted to compare incarcerated African American girls with (n=93) and without (n=50) a substance use disorder across eight subscales measuring personal functioning (depression, self-esteem, aggression, personal stress, feelings of guilt, confused thinking and disturbing thoughts) and five subscales measuring social functioning (problems with mother, problems with father, problems with school, and family relationship problems). Chi-square and t test statistics were conducted to examine differences between girls with and without a substance use disorder on mental health and trauma variables.

Results: Girls with a substance use disorder reported higher levels of problem severity related to personal functioning. They were more likely to have problems related to aggression, confused thinking, and disturbing thoughts. While girls with a substance use disorder had a higher mean score on the aggression subscale, both groups had scores in the clinical range. Girls with a substance use disorder scored higher (M = 2.16, SD = 1.66) than girls without a substance use disorder (M=1.48, SD =1.46) on the Traumatic Experiences subscale of the MAYSI­2 and had a higher proportion (45.6%) of being classified into the “high total score, likely has PTSD” category of the mental health assessment questionnaire than girls without a substance use disorder (34.7%). There were no significant differences between the two groups on subscales measuring social functioning and in rates of meeting criteria for the following mental health disorders: conduct, mood, adjustment, anxiety, and oppositional defiance disorders.

Conclusion and Implications: The present study expands our understanding of the similar and diverse needs of incarcerated African American girls. The findings indicate that incarcerated African American girls with and without a substance use disorder may benefit from culturally relevant interventions that address mental health, aggression, and lifetime trauma. While girls with and without a substance use disorder share some of the same treatment needs, the severity of those needs differ, particularly as they relate to trauma issues. Accordingly, incarcerated African American girls with a substance use disorder may benefit from more intense interventions that focus on cognitive restructuring.