Detained girls' treatment engagement over time: The role of psychopathology and quality of life

Lore Van Damme, Machteld Hoeve, Wouter Vanderplasschen, Robert Vermeiren, Thomas Grisso and Olivier F. Colins

Children and Youth Services Review, 2015, vol. 59, issue C, 47-56

Abstract: Although treatment engagement is considered important to achieve positive outcomes, it is still not well known why some girls in detention are more engaged in treatment than others. This is the first study to examine to what extent psychopathology and self-perceived quality of life (QoL) are related to treatment engagement. Participants were 108 detained girls (Mage=16.21) who completed standardized questionnaires about mental health problems and QoL, and were interviewed with a structured diagnostic interview to assess DSM-IV psychiatric disorders. One and two months after this baseline assessment, the girls reported how much they engaged in treatment. The results showed low levels of treatment engagement and no significant changes in treatment engagement over time. Overall, detained girls with internalizing disorders reported higher treatment engagement scores, while the reverse was true for girls with externalizing disorders. Regarding QoL, the girls with greater satisfaction about their physical and psychological health and about their environment reported higher treatment engagement, while the opposite was true for the domain of social relationships. Our findings emphasize the need for strength-based and motivational approaches and techniques in residential treatment programs for girls, in order to enable change.

Keywords: Engagement; Mental health; Quality of life; Forensic psychiatry; Young offenders; Follow-up studies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740915300803
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:59:y:2015:i:c:p:47-56

DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.10.010

Access Statistics for this article

Children and Youth Services Review is currently edited by Duncan Lindsey

More articles in Children and Youth Services Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().