Treatment Readiness and Engagement in a Sample of Male Justice System-Involved Youth

In the context of rehabilitative intervention for criminal justice system-impacted individuals, treatment readiness is defined as “the presence of characteristics (states or dispositions) within either the client or the therapeutic situation, which are likely to promote engagement in therapy and which, thereby, are likely to enhance therapeutic change” (Ward et al., 2004, p.650). Within the Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) framework, it has been conceptualized as a specific responsivity factor impacting an individual’s ability to successfully engage in services aimed at rehabilitation. However, the construct is understudied, particularly in the context of youth justice. There is currently no validated measure of treatment readiness for justice system-involved youth. This dissertation consists of two studies aimed at improving understanding and assessment of the construct in the population of justice system-involved youth. In the first study, I examined the psychometric properties of the Corrections Victoria Treatment Readiness Questionnaire (CVTRQ; Casey et al., 2007)), a 20-item self-report measure used to assess treatment readiness in justice system-involved individuals. In a sample of 274 male justice system-involved youth (aged 13-18), the internal consistency of the tool as a whole was ‘good’ (α=.80) but the four-factor structure suggested by the tool’s developers did not hold in a Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Construct validity was demonstrated via positive correlations with three measures tapping into similar constructs while discriminant validity was not supported. In terms of predictive validity, contrary to predictions, total scores did not predict attendance in probation services (a behavioral measure of engagement) or recidivism. In Study 2, I used a subsample of 149 male justice system-involved youth from Study 1 to explore relationships between readiness, engagement in services, and recidivism in order to improve our ability to determine youth who may struggle to engage and to better understand the role of engagement in outcomes. First, I examined relationships between empirically-supported predictors of engagement and service engagement. Next, I examined whether treatment readiness and willingness to participate in services predicted engagement in services.. I then used linear regression to determine whether engagement in services predicted recidivism and hierarchical logistic regression to determine whether it did so over and above recidivism risk and whether whether engagement in services moderated the relationship between risk and recidivism;. Taken together, study findings support that initial motivation to participate predicts subsequent engagement and suggest that service engagement is an important treatment target. Overall, results suggest that the CVTRQ may not be a robust measure of treatment readiness in justice system-involved youth. Results provide preliminary support for the use of two items on the YLS/CMI Attitudes/Orientation domain as a simplified indicator, but the development of a tool that assesses readiness in justice system-involved youth remains a research goal. Further research exploring engagement in different contexts is also warranted.

Keywords: Engagement
Justice-Involved Youth
Treatment Readiness
Advisor: Peterson-Badali, Michele