Predicting juvenile delinquency: the nexus of childhood maltreatment, depression and bipolar disorder.
BACKGROUND
It is important to identify and provide preventative interventions for youth who are most at risk for offending behaviour, but the connection between early childhood or adolescent experiences and later delinquency adjudication is complicated.


OBJECTIVE
To test for associations between specified mental disorders or maltreatment and later delinquency adjudication.


METHODS
Participants were a random sample of youth before the juvenile courts in two Northeast Ohio counties in the USA (n = 555) over a 4-year time frame (2003 to 2006).


RESULTS
Logistic regression analysis identified a lifetime diagnosis of depression and/or bipolar disorder to be predictive of later youth delinquency adjudication, but found that childhood maltreatment (or involvement with the child welfare system) made delinquency outcomes less likely.


CONCLUSIONS
Study implications are discussed as they relate to professionals working in the fields of child welfare, social work, mental health and juvenile justice. Awareness of risks associated with maltreatment may have led to effective interventions, while there may be less awareness of risks from depression in young people; however, studies tend not to take account of intervention variables.
Mallett
Christopher A
CA
School of Social Work, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH 44115-2214, USA. c.a.mallet@csuohio.edu
Stoddard Dare
Patricia
P
Seck
Mamadou M
MM
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000145:classification / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009820:Ohio; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications