Parental readiness for behavior change and support of juvenile offenders – implications for complex intervention planning

Since the purpose of interventions for juvenile offenders is behaviour change, the main question is which factors contribute to that process. Given the interdependence of family members, especially of children in relation to parents, it is interesting to see how readiness to change of juveniles involved in interventions is influenced by the support of the parents or whether the parents are ready to change their behaviour for the benefit of their child.

With the aim of understanding the relationship between the readiness to change of juveniles and their parents and providing and perceiving support, pairs of juveniles and parents were involved in research, at the beginning of intervention after committing the crime. Parallel forms of Readiness to Change Scale and Readiness to support (for parents) and Perception of parental support (for juveniles) were used. Data were processed on a sample of 56 pairs.

Statistically significant differences between parental and juvenile readiness for behaviour change speak in favour of a higher level of parental readiness. Such results have been found in identifying differences between the readiness for parental support and the juvenile's perception of that support, where parents express more support than juveniles perceive. Through regression analysis, it was found that the perception of parental support by the juvenile significantly contributes to the child's readiness for behaviour change, while other predictors such as age, self-efficacy, family and child risk levels, parental readiness to change were not significant.

Presentation will provide the implications for complex interventions planning based on received results.
Co-author: Dora Dodig Hundrić