Youth in the juvenile justice system evince high rates of mental health symptoms, including anxiety and depression. How these symptom profiles change after first contact with the justice system and – importantly – how they are related to re-offending remains unclear. Here, we use latent growth curve modeling to characterize univariate and multivariate growth of anxiety, depression, and re-offending in 1216 male adolescents over 5 years following their first arrest. Overall, the group showed significant linear and quadratic growth in internalizing symptoms and offending behaviors over time such that levels decreased initially after first arrest followed by a small but significant upturn occurring a few years later. Crucially, multivariate growth models revealed strong positive relationships between the rates of growth in internalizing symptoms and offending behaviors such that improvements in mental health related to greater decreases in offending, and vice versa. These results highlight the reciprocal nature of internalizing and externalizing problems in adolescence, underscoring the importance of considering mental health alongside offending in the juvenile justice system.

少年司法系统中的青少年表现出很高的心理健康症状，包括焦虑和抑郁。首次接触司法系统后，这些症状特征如何变化，以及重要的是，它们与再次犯罪有何关系，目前尚不清楚。在这里，我们使用潜在增长曲线模型来描述 1216 名男性青少年在首次被捕后 5 年内焦虑、抑郁和再犯罪的单变量和多变量增长。总体而言，随着时间的推移，该群体的内化症状和犯罪行为表现出显着的线性和二次增长，因此水平在第一次被捕后最初下降，随后几年后出现小幅但显着的上升。至关重要的是，多元增长模型揭示了内化症状的增长率与犯罪行为之间存在很强的正相关关系，因此心理健康的改善与犯罪行为的大幅减少相关，反之亦然。这些结果凸显了青春期内化问题和外化问题的相互关系，强调了在青少年司法系统中考虑心理健康和犯罪问题的重要性。