School of Psychology, The University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, USA.
Department of Psychology, The University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
Crim Behav Ment Health. 2022 Apr;32(2):75-86. doi: 10.1002/cbm.2231. Epub 2022 Mar 24.
Although justice-involved adolescents have a higher prevalence of trait anger and of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) than adolescents in the general population, these factors have not been examined in relation to institutional misconduct.
We sought to examine associations between ADHD symptoms and misconduct, including aggression, disruptive behaviours and other rule-violating behaviours among adolescents in a maximum-security residential facility run by the Department of Juvenile Justice and to test the moderating effect of trait anger on such relationships.
Archival data collected from April 2010 to May 2011 comprising a resident cohort (N = 119) of justice-involved adolescents (mean age = 16.74) were analysed; 30% were White and 70% Black. Self-report measures of ADHD symptoms and trait anger were collected 2 weeks after their admission to the facility. Behavioural write-ups of rule violations issued by facility staff during the month following the collection of these measures were coded according to the different forms of institutional misconduct.
Analyses revealed that trait anger significantly predicted disruptive behaviours occurring within a 1-month time frame following the administration of the anger measure; it also predicted all other rule violating behaviours except aggression. ADHD symptoms, by contrast, were only marginally predictive. Trait anger did not moderate this small relationship between ADHD symptoms and institutional misconduct.
These findings that adolescents with a chronic tendency to feel angry are more likely to violate a variety of institutional rules during the first few weeks of admission to a juvenile justice maximum-security residential facility suggest that early intervention efforts are needed to minimise harm within the institution and to prevent these adolescents from continuing on this trajectory, which may affect the conditions of their release.
尽管有犯罪记录的青少年比普通人群中的青少年更容易出现特质愤怒和注意缺陷/多动障碍（ADHD），但这些因素与机构不当行为之间的关系尚未得到研究。
我们试图研究 ADHD 症状与不当行为（包括攻击性、破坏性行为和其他违反规定的行为）之间的关联，这些行为发生在一个由少年司法部管理的最高安全级别住宿设施中的青少年中，并检验特质愤怒对这些关系的调节作用。
对 2010 年 4 月至 2011 年 5 月期间收集的档案数据进行分析，该数据包括一个由有犯罪记录的青少年组成的居民队列（n=119，平均年龄=16.74）；其中 30%是白人，70%是黑人。在他们被安置到设施后两周内，收集了他们的 ADHD 症状和特质愤怒的自我报告测量数据。在收集这些措施后的一个月内，设施工作人员根据不同形式的机构不当行为，对违规行为的书面记录进行了编码。
分析显示，特质愤怒显著预测了在愤怒测量后 1 个月内发生的破坏性行为；它还预测了所有其他违反规定的行为，除了攻击性。相比之下，ADHD 症状的预测能力则稍差。特质愤怒并没有调节 ADHD 症状与机构不当行为之间的这种小关系。
这些发现表明，具有慢性愤怒倾向的青少年在被安置到少年司法部最高安全级别住宿设施的头几周内更有可能违反各种机构规定，这表明需要早期干预措施来尽量减少机构内的伤害，并防止这些青少年继续走这条可能影响他们释放条件的轨迹。
