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School Engagement Among Youth Entering Probation

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Abstract

Strong school engagement is crucial for school success among adolescents and particularly important for reducing recidivism. Yet, little is known about school engagement among youth serving probation while attending community schools. This study tested the multivariate associations between risk and promotive factors with three components of school engagement (behavioral, cognitive, and emotional). The study’s sample was derived from 5,378 intake assessments (23.6% female) of youth entering juvenile probation in a Pacific Northwest county who were assessed as either moderate or high risk for recidivism. The racial composition of the sample was predominantly White or European American (56.0%) and Black or African American (24.2%) and ranged in age from 10 to 19 years old (M = 15.5, SD = 1.46). The results suggest that dimensions of school engagement can be strengthened by increased relational and skill-building supports throughout youth’s social ecologies. The promotive factors of prosocial attitudes and prosocial community connections were significantly associated with increased school engagement. The implications of these findings are discussed regarding opportunities and strategies that promote school engagement for youth on probation.

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Acknowledgements

We thank T. J. Bohl and Kevin Williams for their support of this line of research. We also thank Dr. Angelique Day for input on an earlier version of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Henry Joel Crumé & Paula S. Nurius

  2. Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Bo-Kyung Elizabeth Kim

  3. School of Social Work, University of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Patricia Logan-Greene

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  1. Henry Joel Crumé
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Contributions

HJC conceived of the study, developed its design, and coordinated and drafted the manuscript; PSN, B-KEK, and PL-G participated in the manuscript design and assisted in the interpretation of the data and drafting the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Funding

This research was supported in part by a Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development research infrastructure grant, R24 HD042828, to the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology at the University of Washington. At the time of the study, B-KEK was a Scholar with the HIV/AIDS, Substance Abuse, and Trauma training Program (HA-STTP), at the University of California, Los Angeles; supported through an award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R25DA035692).

Data Sharing and Declaration

This manuscript’s data will not be deposited. The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available. The data that support the findings of this study were made available by the Pierce County (Washington State) Juvenile Court, restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study.

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Correspondence to Henry Joel Crumé.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical Approval

This study was reviewed by the University of Washington Institutional Review Board and approved as non-human subjects research. Access to the data used in the study was obtained with permission from the Pierce County (Washington State) Juvenile Court. The study complied with all ethical standards.

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This study’s secondary data analysis complied with informed consent standards.

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Crumé, H.J., Nurius, P.S., Kim, BK.E. et al. School Engagement Among Youth Entering Probation. J Youth Adolescence 50, 1098–1113 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01405-3

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