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Anger, Depression Much Higher Among Jailed Teen Girls than Boys |
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From University of California Irvine: In a four-state survey, researchers found that girls are twice as likely as boys to be aggressive, and just as likely as boys to have problems with alcohol or drug use -- findings that surprised psychologist Elizabeth Cauffman, who has worked for years with troubled teens in California and Pennsylvania. "The psychological issues we found with girls in detention centers are nothing like what we expected -- not compared to boys in juvenile hall, not compared to average girls in the community," said Cauffman, associate professor of psychology and social behavior at UC Irvine. For the study, researchers gave psychological evaluations to more then 800 teens and then compared the results of teens in juvenile detention facilities to those who had never been incarcerated but shared similar backgrounds, race and socioeconomic status. In addition, incarcerated girls were two and a half times as likely as boys to describe levels of depression and anxiety that may require treatment, and twice as likely to have a number of somatic complaints, such as physical aches and pains. Although fewer than 200 girls are detained by the California Youth Authority, Cauffman said the findings help validate concerns raised by staffers who work with the girls. The Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument, Version 2, which Cauffman used as the evaluation tool for her study, was designed specifically for juvenile offenders and can be administered by staff at juvenile detention centers. Founded in 1965, UCI is among the fastest-growing University of California campuses, with more than 25,000 undergraduate and graduate students and about 1,800 faculty members.
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