ARTICLES
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Incarcerated Juvenile Delinquents

https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-199703000-00014Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open archive

ABSTRACT

Objective

To assess the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in severely delinquent subjects and to measure associated personality characteristics.

Method

Eighty-five incarcerated boys (mean age 16.6, SD = 1.2) with mostly violent offenses were studied. The sample was representative of the California Youth Authority population. They received a standard psychiatric screen, a semistructured interview for PTSD, and self-report questionnaires measuring personality traits and defenses. A nonclinical sex- and age-matched group was used for comparing psychometrics.

Results

Subjects suffered from PTSD at higher rates than other adolescent community samples and at higher rates than those found in county probation camps. Thirty-two percent fulfilled criteria for PTSD, 20% partial criteria. One half of the subjects described the witnessing of interpersonal violence as the traumatizing event. Psychometric results converged in the predicted way: Subjects with PTSD showed elevated distress, anxiety, depression, and lowered restraint, impulse control, and suppression of aggression; they had high levels of immature defenses such as projection, somatization, conversion, dissociation, and withdrawal.

Conclusions

PTSD occurs at high rates in delinquents, and this finding has implications for management and treatment. Personality characteristics that might put individuals at risk for the development of PTSD were identified.

Key Words

posttraumatic stress disorder
adolescents
delinquents
personality
defenses

Cited by (0)

A brief version of this paper was presented at the 41st Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in 1994.

This project was supported by grants to Dr. Steiner from The California Wellness Foundation and the Robbins Fund. The authors thank Elaine Duxbury, Director of the Division of Research in the California Youth Authority, and Allison Zajac, Superintendent of the O.H. Close Campus, for their support.