Assessing Traumatic Experiences of Justice-Involved Latinx Youth A Systematic Review

Background: Traumatic experiences have been linked to the unmet behavioral health needs of justice-involved youth. Unmet behavioral health needs are some of the most salient predictors of initial justice involvement and recidivism. Latinx youth are one of the most overrepresented ethnic and racial minority groups in the Juvenile Justice System in the United States. The primary aim of this systematic review was focused on justice-involved, Latinx youth in order to compare traumatic experiences and PTSD rates by race/ethnicity and gender. Methods: To ensure methodological rigor and reduce bias, a protocol was developed to outline criteria for study inclusion and to identify relevant data for extraction. For inclusion in this systematic review, studies had to be (a) observational or randomized controlled trials, (b) assess either trauma exposure or symptoms of justice-involved Latinx youth 13 to 18 years of age, (c) sample detained youth in the juvenile justice system, and (d) compare Latinx trauma experience or symptoms by gender and/or by ethnicity/race. A librarian at the University of California, San Francisco assisted to identify seminal articles in the field of juvenile justice and to identify subject headings and keyword terms from titles and abstracts. Results: Seven peer-reviewed articles were collected from PsycINFO, PubMed, and EMBASE, analyzed, and summarized. Themes from the literature were organized into the following sections: (a) participant characteristics, (b) measurement of trauma experience and PTSD, (c) types of studies, (d) trauma rates, (e) trauma exposure by race/ethnicity and Latinx gender, and (f) PTSD by race/ethnicity and gender. There were differences in the number and types of traumatic experiences that the youth were asked about, which precluded allowing direct data comparisons across studies. Most of the studies varied in their measurement of PTSD. Trauma exposure rates by race/ethnicity and Latinx gender was mixed. Latinx youth disclosed PTSD symptoms at a statistically significant higher rate than did White and Black youth. Conclusion: Trauma rate differences varied by study, presumably related to a lack of construct equivalence and variability in the number and types of traumatic experiences assessed by the measures. Further research is needed to inform appropriate assessment and treatment of justice-involved Latinx youth.