Predictors of Mental Health Service Enrollment Among Juvenile Offenders

Abstract

The objective was to identify predictors of public mental health service enrollment among detained juvenile offenders. A representative sample of 228 juvenile detainees was interviewed with measures of psychological symptoms and impairment, associated risk factors, and demographic variables. Logistic regression analyses determined how the 110 youth enrolled in mental health services differed from the 118 youth not enrolled. Main effects were found for age, gender, and number of prior detention stays such that younger offenders, female offenders, and recidivists were more likely to have received mental health services. Mental health status, level of functioning, and frequency of substance use were not related to service enrollment. Race interacted with mental health symptoms and recidivism such that Caucasians with greater numbers of symptom elevations and prior detention stays were more likely to be enrolled in mental health services, whereas symptom elevations and recidivism were not related to service enrollment among African American offenders. Systematic assessment and referral procedures may be a necessary step toward improving the likelihood that mental health services are distributed to juvenile offenders on the basis of mental health need.