The number of individuals convicted of crime in the United States is large, and re-conviction rates among these individuals is even higher. Criminal conviction and recidivism rates are concerning for a variety of reasons, most of which are related to the various deleterious outcomes found to be associated with criminal justice involvement. The extant literature on factors related to recidivism focus primarily on unalterable risk factors and alterable risk factors; however, there is still a dearth of research on which alterable strength factors are associated with recidivism, and how patterns of risks and strengths relate to recidivism. The present research addresses some of these gaps by investigating: (a) if established strengths-based internal assets scales are internally reliable for use with criminal justice-involved populations; (b) if classes of clients can be ascertained on a number of alterable strengths (i.e., twelve-step support, self-efficacy, cognitive reappraisal), alterable risks (i.e., difficulty with: transportation, housing, employment, substance use), and an unalterable risk measure (i.e., a standardized risk assessment score derived from prior convictions and personal history; Recidivism Risk from the COMPAS); (c) if ethnicity functions as a significant covariate between emerging classes; and (d) if the emerging classes significantly predict recidivism (i.e., supervision violations) within three-months post-completion of the initial survey. The initial sample for the reliability analyses consisted of N = 333 clients serving time under community supervision at a probation agency in California, due to primarily substance-related convictions. Clients were all identified as male, 58% were identified as Hispanic and 42% White, M = 39 years old. After variables were selected for use in the LCA and observations with missing data were eliminated, the final sample utilized in the LCA was N = 262.

The internal reliability analyses revealed very high internal reliability statistics (α = .91 to .95) on the internal asset scales examined (self-efficacy, self-awareness, cognitive reappraisal, self-regulation). This is an important contribution due to the limited number of studies that examine strengths-based and internal asset scales with criminal justice-involved populations; future research would benefit from continuing to explore these measures and their utility with this population. Next, the LCA analyses revealed strong fit indices for a three-class model that was delineated as representing: Low Strengths, High Risks (45%); High Strengths, Low Risks (29%), and Very Low Strengths, Low Risks (26%). Of note was that the unalterable risk factor (i.e., Recidivism Risk) was not a notable factor in distinguishing class membership. In the covariate analysis, class membership was not found to be divergent by ethnicity. When recidivism (i.e., acquisition of supervision violations within three months of post-completion of the survey) was added as a distal outcome to the three-class solution, significant differences between the three classes emerged on the probability of whether or not an individual was likely to acquire supervision violations. Specifically, the Low Strengths, High Risks population was significantly more likely to acquire supervision violations than the other two classes of clients (High Strengths, Low Risks; Very Low Strengths, Low Risks).

The research suggests that clients may be able to be screened by use of alterable risk and alterable strengths in preventing or identifying propensity toward recidivism. Based on the lack of discriminant ability of the unalterable risk factor (based largely on criminal history), it is unclear now what the utility of an unalterable measure may be in such a screening tool. The use of LCA in this study provides an innovative way to bridge research into practice, in that practitioners and individuals in direct contact with similar criminal justice-involved clients could utilize results of these analyses to develop client profiles to intervene or provide additional supports to clients, in an effort to prevent recidivism. This research has important implications due to the various gaps in the literature; the potential for this research to be immediately useful and applicable for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers; and the general lack of strengths-based approaches used with criminal-justice involved populations that may help to better understand factors related to recidivism, and thus help deter the various negative outcomes that are associated with continued criminal justice involvement.

Most research on traumatic events such as sexual assault tends to focus solely on the negative consequences. However, overlooking potential positive outcomes post-trauma limits survivors’ healing processes and treatment outcomes. This study explored the association between trauma, posttraumatic growth, and sense of purpose in life in university student survivors of sexual assault. The following variables were measured: posttraumatic growth, trauma history (including high magnitude stressors, traumatic stressors, and persisting posttraumatic distress), and sense of purpose. Utilizing a primarily quantitative study with a qualitative component, survivors of sexual assault were asked to complete a survey and open-ended questions about their life experiences.

Exploratory analysis showed the spread of the distribution of the Purpose in Life subscale with this sample. Thematic Analysis revealed how survivors understand their purpose in life. Qualitative themes and sub-themes that emerged from the domain, Sense of Purpose in Life, included: I Have a Sense of Purpose, I Don’t Have a Sense of Purpose, I Don’t Know My Purpose, and Purpose is Constructed. Within I Have a Sense of Purpose, 2 secondary themes emerged: Self-oriented and Beyond the Self. Within Self, there were 8 sub-themes: Self-actualization, Education, Career, Health, Happiness, Financial, Interests, and Safety. Within Beyond the Self, 5 sub-themes emerged: Generally Improve the World at Large, Solve Societal Problem, Improve the Lives of Others, Spirituality and Relationships (sub-themes from Relationships were Family and Honoring Parents).

Thematic Analysis also revealed how survivors view purpose impacting their life and healing post-assault. Qualitative themes and sub-themes that emerged from the open-ended question included: Impacts of Sexual Assault (SA) (sub-themes: Mental Health, Sense of Self, Relational, Consequences, Positive Effects), Purpose Helps Me (sub-themes: Purpose Helped Me Cope, Purpose Helped Me Grow, Purpose Helped Me Take Action Outside Myself), Purpose Harms Me, Purpose Has No Impact, SA Increased My Purpose, SA Decreased my Purpose, SA Did Not Impact My Purpose.

Results from hierarchical multiple regression showed that, controlling for age and education, purpose in life and trauma history are significantly related to posttraumatic growth. These results suggest the usefulness of focusing on one’s sense of purpose when designing interventions for survivors of sexual assault. The results from this study can be used to inform future research on PTG and to inform mental health practitioners’ treatment in promoting better client outcomes for survivors.

Schools and communities are increasingly diverse. Therefore, it is critical to understand diversity’s impact in school, including how diversity relates to students’ psychosocial experiences and who is thriving or experiencing more challenges in a high diversity context, to inform practices that support students in culturally diverse educational environments. This dissertation assessed school diversity’s relations with students’ psychosocial experiences built upon cultural-ecological theory using a sample of California public school students. Considering the limited diversity measures, which show inadequacy in measuring dual-concept diversity in educational research, this dissertation also discussed diversity measures and proposed alternative mathematical formulas to capture diversity. Three studies were structured. Study 1 used latent profile analysis to explore school diversity profiles indicated by student racial/ethnic and socioeconomic diversity and teacher racial/ethnic diversity among California public schools. Multilevel multigroup analysis was employed to assess profiles’ relations with two indicators of psychosocial experiences (i.e., race-based victimization and school connectedness) across four racial/ethnic groups––Asian, Black, Latinx, and White students. Results suggested that a balanced racial/ethnic representation reduced racial/ethnic disparities in race-based victimization. Study 2 investigated how the teacher and student racial/ethnic diversity were uniquely related to students’ perception of school climate by intersecting identities between socioeconomic and racial/ethnic identities among White and Latinx students. The results showed that among Latinx and White students with low socioeconomic levels, greater teacher racial/ethnic diversity was associated with more positive reported school attitudes in parental engagement and perceived school equality and safety. Study 3 discussed concerns about using the existing diversity measures and operationalizations of three distinct diversity concepts: normic, dual-concept, and representative. Additionally, it proposed alternative mathematical expressions to capture dual-concept diversity and underscored some of the conceptual ambiguities of current research in measuring and applying different diversity concepts. The collective findings imply that maintaining a power balance is vital to protecting students from social exclusion experiences; efforts in facilitating positive psychosocial experiences are particularly needed for schools with diverse student populations and students with historically marginalized identities. More research is also warranted in diversity measures and conceptualizations. Practical implications for fostering psychosocial experiences in a diverse school context are discussed.

The trauma of genocide can transmit to subsequent generations through familial mental health, sociopolitical trauma, and cultural narratives to impact mental health and well-being. Investigating the specific mechanisms unique to each ethnic group impacted by genocide may illuminate more cultural, sociopolitical, and individual factors for the transmission. Although research on the mental health of Armenian genocide descendants is sparse, research on Native American and Cambodian genocide descendants suggests a common experience is unresolved historical loss, which is a sense of mourning over cultural losses due to genocide. The aim of conducting a quantitative and qualitative study was to identify whether and how Armenian American transitional aged youth experience historical loss. Nineteen youth, ages 16 to 24, were extensively interviewed to provide diverse experiences of familial migration experiences and exposure to trauma. Emergent themes through grounded theory suggest (1) historical loss is pertinent to the Armenian experience and is triggered by continued community trauma (2) this experience, through persistent feelings of hopelessness and anger, impact mental health experiences and help seeking behaviors, (3) cultural preservation, community connectedness, and engagement in activism act as transgenerational resiliency factors, and (4) marginalized Armenians are at particular risk for the impact of historical loss. For the quantitative study, 215 Armenian American transitional aged youth (ages 16-21) were recruited in a survey to examine the direct and indirect effects of acculturative and historical loss experiences on mental health and the resiliency factors that may protect against these stressors. The results demonstrated that the participants experienced high rates of historical loss in that they, on average, thought about various types of losses almost weekly. A path analysis revealed that perceived historical loss and acculturative stress both were associated with higher rates of mental health distress. Additionally, community connectedness and cultural preservation acted as resiliency factors. This model predicted 42% of the variance in mental health outcomes. Implications for mental health practitioners, schools, and community leaders working with Armenian transitional aged youth are discussed.

Multiple nationally representative studies in the same time period demonstrate that between 45-63% of all individuals in the United States have lived through at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE; (Felitti et al., 1998; Merrick, Ford, Ports, & Guinn, 2018; Sacks & Murphey, 2018; Sacks, Murphey, & Moore, 2014). ACEs are garnering more attention as more systems (e.g., school, juvenile justice facilities) become aware of their devastating impacts. As more prevention and intervention efforts are funded, it is vital to understand how ACEs interact with one another to influence symptoms and other outcomes (Wolff, Cuevas, Intravia, Baglivio, & Epps, 2018). Some scholars argue in favor of a cumulative risk only approach, however, the importance of an interactional approach, consisting of unique clusters of ACEs, is supported by the developmental trauma disorder framework. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether unique clusters of ACEs exist, and to demonstrate classes utilizing additional ACEs items. Following this, the purpose of the study is to determine whether clusters are practically helpful in real-world clinical settings. Participants consisted of 167 Latinx youth aged 12 – 17 seeking services at a community mental health agency. An ML 3-step LCA (Vermunt, 2010) was used to estimate classes, predict class membership from gender, and predict internalizing/externalizing symptoms from class membership. Due to nearly all fit statistics converging upon either a 2-class or 3-class model, it is likely that both a 2-class model and 3-class model are adequate models to describe co-occurrences of adverse childhood experiences. As there was acceptable support for a 3-class solution, and an examination of item probabilities revealed meaningful differences amongst the three classes, the present study utilized a 3-class model of ACEs. The three typologies of ACEs constellations that emerged were: (1) Interpersonal Victimization with High Community Violence and Low Household Dysfunction, (2) Healthy Interpersonal Relationships with Divorce and Low Household Dysfunction, and (3) Family Interpersonal Victimization with Extreme Household Dysfunction. Significant gender differences were found when predicting class membership in the Healthy Interpersonal Relationships with Divorce and Low Household Dysfunction class, with boys being more likely to be placed in this class than any other class. The Interpersonal Victimization with High Community Violence and Low Household Dysfunction demonstrated the greatest rates of internalizing and externalizing symptoms at intake and demonstrated greater internalizing symptoms than externalizing symptoms. With recent calls for the acknowledgment of expanded ACEs, using clinical samples, examining ACEs in diverse populations, and using person-centered analysis instead of variable-centered analysis to move beyond a cumulative risk framework has opened up novel research opportunities. The chronic stress experienced by these youth is devastating, leaving them at risk for a number of deleterious mental and physical health outcomes (Osório et al., 2017). There must be a global shift toward the understanding of ACEs, and beyond this, into understanding how we help youth and families experiencing ACEs after collecting these data from them (Finkelhor, 2017). These findings contribute to the pre-existing literature suggesting that the way that traumatic experiences intersect with one another might have differential and clinically significant impacts on psychological functioning.

Children exposed to adverse experiences early in life have an increased risk for developing a range of behavioral problems (Repetti, Taylor, & Seeman, 2002). However, studies focusing on the immediate impact of adverse experiences in early childhood are limited despite high rates of abuse and neglect in young children (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2015). Rates of exposure to violence are also particularly high (63%-94%) for children from Latinx backgrounds living in disadvantaged communities (Gudino, Nadeem, Kataoka, & Lau, 2011). The current study uses parent reported screening and assessment data from a sample of clinically referred youth, ages 1.5 to 5 years, to examine children’s exposure to a range of adverse childhood experiences, levels of internalizing and externalizing problems, and self reports of parenting stress. The sample was comprised of youth from predominantly Latinx (70%) and low-income backrounds. Multivariate analysis was used to test parenting stress as a moderator between the child’s cumulative trauma and child behavior outcomes. Gender and ethnicity differences for cumulative adverse childhood experiences were also analyzed using a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Although results did not support evidence of moderation, parenting stress was found to be a significant predictor for both internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Cumulative trauma significantly predicted internalizing, but not externalizing behaviors. Results from the ANOVA indicated a significant two-way interaction between gender and ethnicity, with non-Latinx children reportedly experiencing an increased number of cumulative traumas compared to Latinx children. Findings from this study are intended to inform screening and treatment approaches for trauma in early childhood populations. Cultural sensitivity concerns related to ACEs screening are also discussed, as well as implications for addressing parenting stress and its relation to young children’s behavioral symptoms following trauma exposure.