Currently, the risk-oriented focus in forensic youth care is increasingly complemented by a growing interest in strengths-based approaches. Knowledge on how detention and the subsequent period in the community is experienced by adolescents, and which elements are helpful in achieving better lives can contribute to this emerging field. The current study aimed to retrospectively explore adolescents’ experiences from the moment they were detained until 6 to 12 months after they left the institution, identifying positive aspects and strengths. In-depth interviews were conducted with 25 adolescents (both boys and girls, 15–18 years old) on average 8 months after discharge from a closed institution in Belgium. A thematic analysis was performed using NVivo 11. Five themes and corresponding subthemes were identified: (1) adolescents’ own strengths and resilience, (2) re-building personally valued lives, (3) making sense of past experiences, (4) moving away from a harmful lifestyle, and (5) (in-)formal supports. Most adolescents are on their way to finding a new balance in life, however, for a subgroup of them, this is still fragile. Adolescents highly emphasize the importance of feeling closely connected to at least one person; to receive practical help with regard to finances, work and housing; and to be able to experience pleasure and joy in their lives. Adolescents’ narratives suggest that starting a journey towards a normative good life often goes along with an initial difficult period because of a sense of loss with regard to their former life. This stresses the importance of targeting rehabilitation towards prosocial goals and enhancing adolescents’ quality of life on those life domains that matter most for them. Furthermore, we stress the importance of helping adolescents in overcoming structural barriers as a first step in supporting them in their trajectories towards better lives.

This study examines the use of the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-Second Version (MAYSI-2) for mental health needs among 1643 youngsters in residential welfare/justice institutions in Europe and the USA, identifying gender differences across countries and settings. Overall, the MAYSI-2 appeared to be a reliable instrument among these youngsters, with only some scales falling (slightly) below the threshold of acceptable internal consistency. Girls (vs. boys) in Belgian/USA justice institutions and Swiss mixed welfare/justice institutions displayed higher scores for the angry–irritable, depressed–anxious, somatic complaints, suicide ideation scales. Also, detained girls from Belgium and Switzerland reported higher scores for traumatic experiences. No gender differences were revealed among adolescents in German welfare institutions. Our findings suggest that the MAYSI-2 may serve as a useful mental health screening instrument among youngsters in welfare/justice institutions and that girls in justice institutions and mixed welfare/justice institutions form a particularly vulnerable population with regard to mental health problems.

The aim of this study is to explore the Subjective well-being (SWB) of school-going adolescents in Uruguay (N= 325; Mage= 14.67; SD= 1.62). We investigate age- and gender-specific relationships between psychopathology and substance use on the one hand, and subjective well-being on the other hand. Multivariate linear regression analyses, indicated five significant predictors of SWB: three psychopathology factors (depression-anxiety, social anxiety and dissocial behaviour), and age displayed a negative association, while one psychopathology factor (resilience) showed a positive association. When extending the multivariate linear regression analysis with interaction effects, significant interactions appeared regarding gender and resilience and age and substance use. Our study focuses on the necessity to have evidence-based results in order to plan appropriate preventive interventions with adolescents.

Despite growing interest in strength-based rehabilitation frameworks, relevant internal/external resources that are likely to facilitate the rehabilitation of detained female adolescents (DFA) have been understudied. This study aims to fill this gap by studying the role of young women’s personal resilience and interpersonal support in building fulfilling and prosocial lives 4 years after youth detention, thereby examining the strength-based good lives model (GLM). Forty-nine former DFA ( M_age = 20.75) completed questionnaires about resilience, support, Quality of Life (QoL), and offending. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that young women with more resilience displayed higher QoL and less offending, while more support was associated with higher QoL only. The relationship between resilience and QoL/offending did not depend upon the level of support. Overall, our results support the applicability of the GLM to former DFA, showing evidence for the importance of both internal and external resources in building fulfilling and prosocial lives.