McPhee Jeanne, Huett Briana, Brogan Leah, McCurdy Elizabeth, NeMoyer Amanda, Kreimer Rena, DeYoung Lena, Goldstein Naomi
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA.
J Appl Juv Justice Serv. 2023;2023:1-22. doi: 10.52935/23.13316.05.
As juvenile probation undergoes nationwide reform to better align with research on adolescent development, it is critical to understand probation officers' knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about corresponding changes to supervisory practices within juvenile probation departments. The Probation Officer Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behaviors (POABB) Scale was designed for use with juvenile probation officers (JPOs) undergoing training in a specific evidence-based supervision strategy (i.e., Graduated Response) to assess staff's knowledge and beliefs about Graduated Response's practices and intended supervisory behaviors. To provide foundational empirical support for the novel scale, the current study examined the factor structure of this self-report measure using POABB data from 351 juvenile probation staff across three mid-Atlantic states. An exploratory factor analysis revealed that a five-factor structure within the POABB provided the best fit and, overall, the POABB had good internal reliability (ɑ = 0.84). Importantly, the five-factor structure suggests a key difference between knowledge of Graduated Response components and attitudes toward using those components in everyday practice. Results suggest that use of the POABB can provide probation departments with information about specific attitudes and overall willingness to implement specific supervision practices as well as offer targeted areas for additional training to support developmentally appropriate probation transformations.
随着青少年缓刑在全国范围内进行改革，以更好地与青少年发展研究保持一致，了解缓刑监督官对青少年缓刑部门监督实践相应变化的知识、态度和信念至关重要。缓刑监督官态度、信念和行为（POABB）量表旨在供接受特定循证监督策略（即分级响应）培训的青少年缓刑监督官（JPO）使用，以评估工作人员对分级响应实践和预期监督行为的知识和信念。为了为这一新量表提供基础实证支持，本研究使用来自大西洋中部三个州的351名青少年缓刑工作人员的POABB数据，检验了这种自我报告测量方法的因子结构。探索性因子分析表明，POABB中的五因素结构拟合最佳，总体而言，POABB具有良好的内部信度（ɑ = 0.84）。重要的是，五因素结构表明了对分级响应组成部分的知识与在日常实践中使用这些组成部分的态度之间的关键差异。结果表明，使用POABB可以为缓刑部门提供有关特定态度和实施特定监督实践的总体意愿的信息，并为额外培训提供有针对性的领域，以支持适合发展阶段的缓刑改革。
