Examining the Mediating Role of Police-Initiated Stigma and Trauma in the Relationship between Intrusive Police Contact and Youth Mental Health Outcomes

Background and Purpose

Existing research has established a link between intrusive police contact and outcomes such as trauma and perceived stigma. However, there remains a gap in the relationship between such effects and clinical mental health diagnoses (e.g., anxiety and depression) among affected adolescents. This study poses the research question: Is intrusive police contact associated with increased symptoms of depression and anxiety among adolescents, and are these associations mediated by posttraumatic stress and perceived social stigma following the contact?

Methods

Data and Sample

Data are from the sixth wave of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), a longitudinal, birth cohort study. The FFCWS employed a multistage, clustered sampling method. This study focused on 918 youth who reported having been stopped by the police, representing 26.66% of the 3,444 youth in this wave.

Measures

Dependent variables. Youth anxiety was measured using a six-item scale, adapted from the anxiety subscale of the Brief Symptom Inventory 18 (BSI 18). Youth depression was measured using a five-item scale derived from the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D).

Independent variable. Officer intrusiveness was operationalized as a total count measure, with a seven-item scale that measures seven types of officer behaviors.

Mediators. Police-initiated trauma was constructed with nine binary items regarding whether the youth experienced posttraumatic stress following the police stop. Perceived social stigma after police contact was constructed with eleven binary items assessing whether the youth experienced stigma-related feelings or beliefs following the police stop.

Control Variables. Control variables included gender, race, age first time stopped by police, number of times stopped by the police, poverty status, school disengagement, and family relationship.

Analyses

All analyses were performed using Stata 17. Properly weighted coefficients were estimated, and appropriate variance adjustments were made. Multivariate path analysis was conducted to test the hypothesized pathways with two path models for two dependent variables, respectively. Missing data were handled using multiple imputations with 20 imputations. Results were presented as beta coefficients.

Results

The results indicated that police intrusiveness had a significant, positive, direct effect on both police-initiated posttraumatic stress (β = .45, p < .001) and perceived social stigma (β = .27, p < .001), when controlling for covariates. Police intrusiveness had a significant indirect effect on both anxiety (β = .24, p < .001) and depression (β = .11, p < .001). Overall, police intrusiveness did not exhibit a significant total effect on either youth anxiety (β = -.12, p = .15) or depression (β = -.01, p = .93).

Conclusions and Implications

This study highlights the significant psychological impact of intrusive police encounters on youth, showing that such experiences can create stressors contributing to elevated anxiety and depression among adolescents. These findings underscore the urgent need for interventions that address intrusive policing and provide inclusive, trauma-informed mental health support for affected youth. Mental health clinicians should be trained to recognize and respond to trauma and stigma associated with police encounters, while schools should actively educate students about law enforcement procedures and their legal rights.