Fluctuating Family Engagement on Youth Case Outcomes in Social Control Settings

Cuny City College, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

SES-1357230 Leslie Paik CUNY City College Family involvement is critical for positive adolescent youths' outcomes in social control settings, but our understanding of how families get involved is still unclear, especially in situations where adolescents are also held responsible for their actions. Judges set conditions for juvenile delinquents to fulfill on their own, but also expect parents to help those youths meet those conditions. Health practitioners encourage adolescents to start managing their health-related conditions such as obesity or diabetes by themselves; yet parents are still involved in buying food for the family, filling prescriptions, or taking youths to appointments. These competing messages can lead to confusion among adolescents, parents and staff as to who is expected to do what, ultimately affecting youths' case outcomes. This project offers a more nuanced and clearer understanding of family involvement in social control settings by conducting a qualitative comparative study of 60 families in court and health care settings. In looking at how families engage in their youths' cases and the impact of that engagement on the youth's case outcomes over time, the project studies family involvement as a fluid concept shaped by parents' and youths' interactions with staff, their perceptions of the institution and their involvement in other institutions. The study includes interviews with 30 families whose youths have delinquency cases in Family Court and another 30 whose youth go to health institutions for medical conditions such as diabetes or obesity; it also will observe 20 families (10 per setting) over 12 months. The project advances research by providing a new perspective on family responsibility for youth outcomes that more clearly demarcates the parameters of that responsibility, versus that of youths and institutional staff. The comparative focus highlights the organizational context to family engagement and the expanding yet ambiguous scope of parental responsibility in contemporary society. Broader Impacts Research findings will provide insight for organizations seeking to solicit family involvement in their youths' cases by identifying the mechanisms by which youth and families might engage, disengage or reengage in institutional interventions. They also will illuminate the ways in which racial, gender and class inequalities can be perpetuated through these institutions and people's general mistrust of such institutions is fostered.