The Role of Future Goal Importance and Expectations Among Adolescents with Court Involvement
Abstract
Adolescents with court involvement have unique challenges navigating their schools' academic and social expectations. Still, less is known about the perceptions of importance of and expectations regarding their likelihood of accomplishing future goals despite these challenges. The present study capitalizes on a subset of secondary data collected as part of the Pathways to Desistance study, a seven-year, longitudinal study of male and female youth with court involvement from Maricopa County, AZ, and Philadelphia, PA, examining longitudinal factors associated with desistance from delinquent or criminal behavior and school and community settings. The current study used 534 participants to investigate the role of baseline importance and expectations of graduating college and being law-abiding in predicting school connectedness (i.e., school orientation and teacher bonding) and delinquency outcomes at 12 months in a sample of youth involved with court involvement. The specific aims of this study were to (1) evaluate whether baseline importance and expectations of graduating college and being law-abiding predict school connectedness; (2) evaluate whether baseline importance and expectations of graduating college and being law-abiding predict delinquency; and (3) assess what role importance and expectations of school connectedness and law-abiding behavior relate to each other among adolescents with court involvement navigating their schools and communities. This study's findings partially support the hypothesis as the perceived importance of graduating college significantly impacted school connectedness and lower delinquency at 12- a month follow-up assessment. These findings will further our understanding of the experiences of adolescents with court involvement attempting to navigate the complex and challenging process of succeeding in their community schools.
Subject Area
Psychology|Clinical psychology|Criminology
Recommended Citation
Berantuo, Clairmond A, "The Role of Future Goal Importance and Expectations Among Adolescents with Court Involvement" (2023). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI30485558.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI30485558
