A Theory of Hoping For a Better Life Grounded In Youthful Offender Experiences

Twenty percent of children and adolescents in America experience a diagnosable mental health disorder before the age of 21 and 50% of all incidences of mental illness in youth occur by age 14. In the youthful offender population, the prevalence of mental health disorders increases to 70%. Common psychiatric disorders in the juvenile justice population include anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. While juvenile justice detention facilities slowly move to a more rehabilitative and treatment oriented approach, there is little known from the youthful offender voice about what happened in their lives that lead to being detained. In this grounded theory study, twelve youth gave voice to events in their lives through individual interviews. The resulting basic social psychological process, hoping for a better life, contained three stages: enduring the loss, persisting the dissension, and discovering a path. The stages result from the experiences expressed with the youthful offenders’ own words.