The association between caregiver psychiatric distress and perceived barriers to behavioral health treatment participation for youth in the juvenile legal system

Abstract

Youth in the juvenile legal system (JLS) evidence high rates of behavioral health concerns but struggle to access services. Given that caregivers are often tasked with helping their child to initiate and persist with services, it seems important to understand how their own well-being impacts their experiences of barriers to treatment participation for their child. The present study examined the link between caregiver (N = 196; 89% female) psychiatric concerns and experiences of treatment barriers among a sample of youth involved in the JLS. A cluster analysis revealed a cluster of caregivers with clinically significant levels of psychiatric distress and a cluster with low levels of psychiatric distress. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that belonging to the high-distress cluster was predictive of experiencing certain types of barriers to treatment participation. These findings have implications for interventions for addressing barriers to treatment participation for caregivers of legally involved youth.