PSYC2026ZIDLICKY9740 PSYC
Type: Undergraduate
Author(s):
Hampton Zidlicky
Psychology
Advisor(s):
Danica Knight
Psychology
Youth involved with the juvenile justice system are disproportionately exposed to trauma, family stressors, and environmental obstacles. Although family dysfunction, emotion dysregulation, and caregiver strain have been studied in relation to youth delinquency, there’s a gap in the research examining the interaction between these three factors among families with youth involved in the juvenile justice system. Shaped by Bowen’s Family Systems Theory and Social Learning Theory, this study explored triangular associations among emotion dysregulation, family dysfunction, and caregiver strain.
Baseline data were drawn from the parent study, Leveraging Safe Adults (LeSA), which drew 220 youth and their caregivers from nine juvenile detention centers across Texas and Illinois. Among other measures, the youth completed the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and the Youth Family Assessment Device (Y-FAD), while the caregivers completed the Caregiver FAD (C-FAD) and the Caregiver Strain Questionnaire-Short Form (CGSQ-SF). Analyses examined correlations among the three factors.
Results indicated a moderate, statistically significant positive correlation between C-FAD and CSQ, but no significant relationship between Y-FAD and CSQ. The relationship between CSQ and DERS was small, but not statistically significant. Both Y-FAD and C-FAD were related to higher DERS reports.
By analyzing emotion dysregulation, family dysfunction, and caregiver strain reciprocally and interdependently rather than in isolation, this study helps to provide a better understanding of the objective socioemotional processes of and between youth and their families involved in the juvenile justice system. It also highlights the importance of incorporating both youth and caregiver perspectives into study design and assessments.