Perceived Support, Belonging, and Possible Selves Strategies Among Incarcerated Juvenile Offenders1

Possible selves, psychological well-being, and substance use in young men within 12 months post-incarceration

OBJECTIVE

Community reentry post-incarceration is fraught with challenges. The investigators examined the influence of highly personalized goals (possible selves) on psychological well-being, drug use, and hazardous drinking in recently incarcerated young men returning to the community.

DESIGN AND SAMPLE

In this cross-sectional study, 52 young men released from jail or prison within the past 12 months were recruited from community-based organizations and reentry events.

MEASUREMENTS

Participants completed open-ended possible selves measure and psychological well-being and substance use questionnaires.

RESULTS

Possible selves accounted for 19%-31% of the variance in sense of purpose, environmental mastery, and personal growth. Having a feared delinquent possible self was associated with lower sense of purpose. Having many feared possible selves was associated with lower environmental mastery. Having an expected possible self related to interpersonal relationships was associated with higher personal growth and environmental mastery. Men having a feared delinquent possible self or an expected possible self related to material/lifestyle were more likely to use marijuana than men who did not.

CONCLUSION

The content and number of possible selves may be an important focus for assessment by public health nurses in correctional and community settings serving young men post-incarceration. Longitudinal studies with larger samples are needed.

Considering Identity and Meaning Constructions for Vulnerable Young People

Identity and meaning are fundamental to human experience and are particularly pertinent during adolescence and times of adversity. While identity development and meaning making can be different for vulnerable young people, who experience multiple adverse life events, there is currently little evidence of how these young people construct identity and make meaning from their experiences. This article reports on a phenomenological study, which allowed young people to start from their own understandings of identity and meaning and explore the ways they constructed their sense of self and place in the world. Interviews were conducted with 24 young people from Canberra, Australia. The study found identity constructions were profoundly influenced by an entrenched sense of autonomy, a longing to be the opposite of what they had experienced, and the expectation of living up to their own constructions of an ideal self. The findings strengthen our understanding of identity construction for this group, highlight the value of adopting narrative approaches to identity exploration, and demonstrate the value of incorporating knowledge from the field of loss and grief. Strategies to support vulnerable young people to develop positive, coherent, and achievable identity and meaning constructions are provided.

What Lies Ahead

Self-control has been consistently linked to antisocial behavior and though low self-control makes delinquency more likely, neither the findings nor the theory suggests that low self-control necessitates participation in such behavior. There remains a shortage of research on those situational factors or individual characteristics that might lessen the effects of low self-control on antisocial behavior. Future orientation is one such characteristic that can have implications for the control of behavior. The purpose of the current study was to explore the independent and interactive effects of future orientation and low self-control on delinquency using data from Wave 1 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. A series of regressions showed that self-control and future orientation had independent effects on delinquent behavior. Further, future-oriented achievement expectations conditioned the effect of self-control on delinquency such that the effects of self-control were weakened with increases in future orientation. The findings suggest that prevention programs should place more emphasis on helping youth plan for the future. Further, research should more fully explore the other aspects of future orientation (e.g., specificity of planning and change/stability of aspirations), as they relate to self-control and delinquency.