Implicit Beliefs About Change: A Theory-Grounded Measure Applied to Community Organizations Serving Children, Youth, and Families

The aim of this study was to design and evaluate a theory-grounded measure that taps staff beliefs about the possibility for change in an organization which serves children, youth and families at the community level. The rationale for measuring staff beliefs about change derived from a motivation theory that features two contrasting beliefs structures (entity vs. incremental), and the goals and behavioral dispositions associated with each (Dweck & Leggett, 1988). Twenty-nine individuals associated with the community-based organization completed the newly developed Implicit Beliefs About Change Scale (IBACS) and participatedi n a semi-structured interview. Quantitative analyses indicated that the IBACS has good internal consistency, and yields sufficient response variance. Content analysis of the semi-structured interviews, used to assess the scale\u27s construct validity, uncovered distinctive and theory-consistent behavioral dispositions among those staff members whose beliefs regarding change could be characterized as either incremental or entity in nature. Implications for staff development and future research are discussed

Acculturation, familism, and parent-adolescent processes: The role of adherence to traditional cultural values in reducing the risk for delinquency for Mexican American adolescents

Findings that Hispanic youth are at greater risk for delinquency than their Anglo American counterparts, have been used to suggest that traditional Hispanic cultures tolerate or even promote delinquency (Thom, 1997). However, when Hispanic youth are assessed by acculturation level, those most closely connected to the Hispanic culture of origin are at least risk for delinquency (Buriel, Calzada, & Vasquez, 1982; Fridrich & Flannery, 1995). The present study of 527 Mexican American high school students from two-parent families investigated how acculturation may function to minimize the risk for delinquency. Results indicate that Mexican American adolescents' reduced affiliation with Mexican culture is related to lower levels of the traditional Hispanic cultural value of familism and that familism is related to parent-adolescent processes linked to a reduced risk for delinquency, specifically parent-adolescent attachment and parental monitoring. Results also suggest that familism mediates the relationship between acculturation and delinquency through its effect on parent-adolescent processes related to a reduced risk for delinquency. Some gender differences were noted in follow-up analyses. For girls, only maternal monitoring was significantly related to a reduced risk for delinquency. For boys, only mother-son attachment was related to a reduced risk for delinquency. These findings are consistent with a causal model in which decreasing levels of familism help to explain the relationship between acculturation and delinquency to the extent that familism promotes parent-adolescent processes that are related to a reduced risk for delinquency, and suggest that traditional Mexican cultural values function as a protective factor for Mexican American youth and not as a risk factor. Furthermore, traditional gender role values may play a role in explaining the relationship between family processes and a reduced the risk for delinquency for Mexican American adolescents. This study suggests that relevant traditional Hispanic cultural values should be considered in designing and executing delinquency prevention and intervention programs aimed at Hispanic youth

Differential Effects of Adult Court Transfer on Juvenile Offender Recidivism

Prior research indicates that adolescent offenders transferred to adult court are more likely to recidivate than those retained in the juvenile system. The studies supporting this conclusion, however, are limited in addressing the issue of heterogeneity among transferred adolescents. This study estimates the effect of transfer on later crime using a sample of 654 serious juvenile offenders, 29% of whom were transferred. We use propensity score matching to reduce potential selection bias, and we partition the sample on legal characteristics to examine subgroup effects. We find an overall null effect of transfer on re-arrest, but evidence of differential effects of transfer for adolescents with different offending histories. These results suggest that evaluating the effects of transfer for all transferred adolescents together may lead to misguided policy conclusions