The Role of Personal Resilience and Interpersonal Support in Building Fulfilling and Prosocial Lives: Examining the Good Lives Model among Young Women Four Years after Youth Detention

• DOI: 10.1177/0306624X21994055
• Published date: 01 January 2022
• Date: 01 January 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X21994055

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2022, Vol. 66(1) 123 –144

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/0306624X21994055

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Article

The Role of Personal

Resilience and Interpersonal

Support in Building Fulfilling

and Prosocial Lives:

Examining the Good Lives

Model among Young Women

Four Years after Youth

Detention

Lore Van Damme1* , Clare-Ann Fortune2*,

Machteld Hoeve3, Wouter Vanderplasschen1,

and Olivier F. Colins1,4

Abstract

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 (Mage = 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

1Ghent University, Belgium

2Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

3University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

4Örebro University, Sweden

*These authors shared first authorship.

Corresponding Author:

Lore Van Damme, Department of Special Needs Education, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000

Ghent, Belgium.

Email: lml.vandamme@gmail.com

994055IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X21994055International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyVan Damme et al.

research-article2021

124 International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 66(1)

applicability of the GLM to former DFA, showing evidence for the importance of

both internal and external resources in building fulfilling and prosocial lives.

Keywords

good lives model, quality of life, offending, resilience, social support, youth detention,

females, follow-up studies

Female adolescents comprise 5% to 13% of all detained youth worldwide, represent-

ing a very troubled and vulnerable minority within the criminal justice system

(Sheahan, 2014). They often grow up in adverse living conditions (McCabe et al.,

2002; Vahl et al., 2016), experience a broad range of mental health needs (Teplin et al.,

2012; Van Damme et al., 2014), and often display high levels of antisocial behavior

(including severe offending, but also running away from home, truancy, and prostitu-

tion; Kerig & Schindler, 2013; Lederman et al., 2004; Lenssen et al., 2000; Van

Damme et al., 2015a). The scant prospective research among detained female adoles-

cents (DFA) has unambiguously shown their mental health problems, offending

behavior, and broader adjustment problems persist into emerging adulthood, with

prevalence rates ranging between 29% to 59%, 32% to 68%, and 65% to 96%, respec-

tively (Abram et al., 2009, 2017; Colman et al., 2009; Teplin et al., 2012; van der

Molen et al., 2013). In contrast, a rather small group (i.e., only 4%–35%) of DFA

appear to function surprisingly well later in life (van der Molen et al., 2013).

Pathways literature provides one avenue for understanding these different trajecto-

ries. Pathways literature focuses on the development of antisocial behavior within

individuals (Slotboom et al., 2012; Zahn, 2009), with female pathways literature influ-

enced by both mainstream and feminist criminological theories. Mainstream crimino-

logical theories “tend to explain crime in terms of characteristics of the individual and

the individual’s immediate social environment” (Agnew, 2009). Mainstream theories

provide insights into traditional risk factors, as well as the interaction or cumulative

effects of these factors on the development of antisocial behavior. For example,

females following the childhood-onset/life-course persistent pathway are character-

ized by interacting individual and environmental risk factors such as cognitive deficits

and adverse rearing environments (e.g., Moffitt, 1993). In contrast, feminist crimino-

logical theories “examine the role that gender inequality plays in shaping girls’ risks

for delinquency, as well as how gender inequality affects the nature of girls’ delinquent

activities” (Miller & Mullins, 2009). Feminist theories add insights into gendered risk

factors as well as the gendered interaction or cumulative effects which contribute to

the development of antisocial behavior. Overall, female pathways are characterized by

two key gendered themes of relational issues and victimization (e.g., Brown & Bloom,

2018; Chesney-Lind & Pasko, 2004; Nuytiens & Christiaens, 2016). For example,

research has found females often grow up in abusive households and experience early

trauma exposure, ran away from home, engage in drugs, prostitution, or theft to sur-

vive and experience internalizing problems (e.g., stress, depression), substance abuse,