Mental Health Associations With Juvenile Delinquents

Traumas and serious experiences in adolescents is a serious problem. More than half of adolescents struggling with mental disorders will enter adulthood battling the same conditions as they were when they were younger. This is because many of them are overlooked, not handled properly, or written off as negative behavior. Negative behavior and “acting out” can often lead to an adolescent being sent to a detention home and this only leads to an even more negative path for the adolescent. This secondary data analysis study looks at the association between mental health factors and juvenile delinquent behavior. The three behaviors of focus in this study are substance abuse, suicide, and fighting. These were compared to indicators of depression, measured ranging from mild depression to moderate-severe depression, and report of use of mental health services. The data used for this study was from a survey done in a detention home/ facility in Northeast Ohio. The data analysis indicated that youth that reported using mental health services were more likely to abuse substances, participate in fighting, and attempt suicide. And juveniles that had a depression indicator of moderate-severe were more likely to abuse substances, participate in fighting, and attempt suicide.