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Engaging parents to reduce youth violence: evidence from a youth justice board pathfinder programme
Brooks-Wilson, Sarah Booth, Jane Monaghan, Mark
Brooks-Wilson, Sarah
Booth, Jane
Monaghan, Mark
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2023-09-20
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Abstract
The Youth Justice Board’s 2019-2022 strategic plan set youth violence as a priority. As part of this, a ‘pathfinder’ approach was launched to assist Local Authorities and their partners to devise, develop, and disseminate whole systems approaches to serious youth violence (Youth Justice Board, 2020). In partnership with a regional Violence Reduction Unit, seven local Youth Offending Teams worked together with a programme that facilitated peer support networks for parents of children known to the youth justice system. The programme presented a challenge to a view in statutory youth justice of parents as part of the problem (Burney & Gelsthorpe, 2009).
The aim of the programme was to engage parents of young people involved in the youth justice system, facilitating peer to peer support through a blend of online and face to face meetings. Taking a mixed-methods approach, the research sought to investigate the impact of the programme on participants’ wellbeing and perceived competence with parenting. A secondary aim was to explore experiences of the self-care and peer support activities offered by the programme.
The quantitative findings showed statistically significant increases in parents’ self-reported wellbeing and perceived competence with parenting during engagement with the programme. Effect sizes reached the minimum important difference for all of the quantitative measures, with a large effect for wellbeing The qualitative findings highlighted that the self-care focus was important in engaging parents and helps distinguish the programme from statutory services. The findings are combined in the paper to produce a potential model of peer support for parents of children known to the youth justice system. Future research should investigate the impact on the children of parents who took part in this programme with a specific focus on youth violence.
Citation
Caulfield, L., Brooks-Wilson, S., Booth, J. and Monaghan, M. (2023) Engaging parents to reduce youth violence: evidence from a youth justice board pathfinder programme. Crime Prevention and Community Safety, 25, pp. 401–426. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41300-023-00190-4
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Journal article
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en
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© 2023 The authors. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41300-023-00190-4
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1460-3780
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This work was supported by the Youth Justice Board and the West Midlands Violence Reduction Partnership (formerly the West Midlands Violence Reduction Unit).