Tribal youth Program Juvenile Diversion Red Road Project: What are Risk Factors and Protective Factors?

Observer Staff

7/5/2005 12:00:00 AM

By Sarah Pigeon, Resource Specialist

Ngodewaangiziwin "Helping Our Families"

The Saginaw Chippewa Tribe's Tribal youth program, "The Red Road Project" faces front line issues that are extremely significant in delinquency prevention and in improving the overall health and welfare of Tribal children.

Economic status alone does not guarantee that problems will simply go away. After generations of historical trauma which have affected Native people, the place to begin is at the beginning. Delinquency is defined as the quality or state of offending by neglect or violation of duty or of law.

When this definition is applied to children, there is a curious juxtaposition in the term "offending by neglect." Consider that "between 50 to 75 percent of incarcerated youth have diagnosable mental health disorders with one out of every five having an SED (Coalition for Juvenile Justice, 2000).

A consistent pattern evolves as demonstrated in the following information, Juvenile Justice System and Mental Health Disorders: Mental Health Problems-73 percent, Chemical Dependency Symptoms-55 percent, Chemical Dependency Symptoms and Conduct Disorder-27.5 percent, ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)-45 percent.

The Coalition for Juvenile Justice 2000 report suggest further that those youth having co-occurring substance abuse disorders are self-medicating for untreated mental health problems.

Unfortunately, until the Coalition, despite these disturbing numbers, the role of mental illness in delinquency has generally gone unacknowledged.

The Pacer Center, a national special education advocacy organization based in Minneapolis, Minn., reports that more than half of adolescents-up to 75 percent in some correctional settings-have one or more disabilities including emotional, behavioral, learning and developmental disabilities.(www.Pacer.org , 2002, Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan, Inc., �NYU' News You Can Use, Issue 2, Spring 2003)

There are many risks for children, especially Native American children. Probably the most delinquent act a child can commit is to deny their own life.

Among Native Americans the rates of preventable causes of death may be strongly related to alcohol, drug and mental health disorders. Suicide is 70 percent greater than the U.S. all races rate, homicide is 41 percent greater, accidents are 212 percent greater, and alcoholism is 579 percent greater. (Novins, et. AL, 2000).

Moreover, cited risk factors for delinquency include the presence of a disability, experiencing abuse/neglect, family history of mental illness, family members in the justice system, history of school failure, racism and substance abuse (Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan Inc, Issue 2, Spring 2003).

Risk factors for mental illness include genetics, chemical imbalance, damage to the central nervous system and a brain injury, exposure to violence, victim of physical, sexual abuse, alcoholism and/or loss of important people in one's life due to death, divorce or abandonment (Coalition, 2000).

Considering Native Americans are affected by a horrific historical trauma that has cross-generational effects on families, the numbers begin to create a pattern of complex risk factors for Native children.

In order to prevent juvenile delinquency, it is necessary to assess the significance of risk factors and the over representation of Native Americans in state and federal prison systems as well as county jails.

The disproportionate representation in Isabella County jail is 9 percent while Native Americans only make up 2.54 percent of the total population of the county. This means that a total of 18 percent of the total Native population visits the Isabella County Jail compared to the 4 percent of the total white population which constitutes 67 percent of the county's population.

(Understanding risk and protective factors requires comparison. Risk factors by definition are broadly defined as "those characteristics, variables, or hazards that, if present for a given individual, make it more likely that this individual, rather than someone selected from the general population, will develop a disorder." (Mrazek and Haggerty, 1994:127)

More recently the U.S. Surgeon General defines a risk factor as "anything that increases the probability that a person will suffer from harm." (Office of Surgeon General, 2001, Chap. 4.)

Psychologist Coie and colleagues noted in 1993 that several factors are at work in regards to delinquent behavior:

"Dysfunction has a complicated relationship with risk factors; rarely is one risk factor associated with a particular disorder."

"The impact of risk factors may vary with developmental state of the individual."

"Exposure to multiple risk factors has a cumulative effect."

"Many disorders share fundamental risk factors." (Risk Factors for Delinquency: An Overview by Michael Shader, OJJDP's Research and Program Development Division.)

Of particular interest for Native Americans is the exposure to multiple risk factors which causes a cumulative effect that touches upon the way historical trauma that is transferred across generations continuing to affect Native Communities to this day.

The effects of historical trauma can cause families to be beset by many forms of dysfunction, which in themselves are risk factors for delinquency. In preventing delinquency it is important to consider the stressors that are affecting the entire family, sometimes three generations at the same time.

Of these factors, perhaps the most significant is the suppression of feelings. A commonly used term for this condition is denial but "denial" implies willful wishing away of bad things. The act of suppression is much more complex and not a willful act.

Children and many adults living in this dichotomy are not allowed to express their feelings, especially negative ones like anger. The suppression works like a wheel, all the members spinning silently through the chaos of their life with at least one or more members at the center or hub. This hub is the most troubled members of the family, and they are the only ones permitted to express painful feelings openly, especially anger.

When anger is chronic in such families and is unexpressed by the majority of members who are on the rim of the wheel, anger may take other forms. These include abuse of self, others, anti social behavior, various acute and chronic illnesses including stress related.

For the child in such a situation the reality of it is denied and a new model, a distorted view of reality based upon a false belief system is assumed as real by each family member.

Denial of reality and acceptance of the false belief system can bind the family together adding further dysfunction. They dynamic begins to spin the wheel out of control retarding the child's development and growth in the essential areas of mental, emotional, and spiritual areas of life. (Charles Whitfield,1987)

It is important to remember that although risk factors are used to detect the likelihood of offending, many youth with multiple risk factors never commit delinquent or violent acts. A risk fact might increase the probability but it does not make it a certainty that a delinquent act will occur.

A brief review of risk factors and protective factors will clarify their correlation: There are three broad categories with seven factors of significance to the Tribal community.

First Domain:

Social Aspects

Risk Factor One: If you are a minority, especially Native American, you are three to four times more like to be incarcerated in state and federal prisons, and local county jails. Just by birth into a particular race or ethnic group, your risk increases disproportionately to the percent of the population your race or ethnic group represents.

Protective Factor One: This is probably the most difficult of all because it is a societal influence. Yet society is addressing this issue with programs like the Tribal youth program. Juvenile Diversion programs offers an opportunity for a delinquent youth to be diverted from the criminal justice system with an opportunity to make restoration to good standing within their community without developing a criminal record. It keeps them out of the system if they want to follow this path. It offers early prevention by providing the youth with support to solve their problem and receive community support while doing so.

Risk Factor Two: Family structure wherein family size, home discord, child maltreatment, antisocial parents and poor parenting skills are linked to juvenile delinquency.

Protective Factor Two: The protective factor for this risk is more complex because it does involve the whole family. The approach is multifaceted involving an appropriate historical review of family history, reviewing family needs (counseling, substance abuse treatment, etc.), teaching culturally relevant parenting skills and providing community support for the healing the family needs.

Risk Factor Three: Peer influence is not a myth. The old adage "guilty by association" bears out in that those youth associating with a delinquent peer group are more likely to act delinquent. Those associating with a non delinquent peer group are less likely to act delinquent. Lack of interaction with parents intensifies this effect.

Protective Factor Three: If one word could sum up the best protective factor for children, it would be resilience. Youth have the greatest difficulty in making sound, healthy choices because of the pressure and influence of their peer group. Developing resilience in children at a young age can be the greatest deterrent to associating with the wrong crowd. Through the Tribal youth program "The Red Road Project," resilience is taught at the Saginaw Chippewa Academy and other places for others to utilize through the Penn Resiliency Program-a Life Skills and Depression Prevention Curriculum for children and adolescents. This is one of many offerings by the Tribe to its children and families through many departments.

Second Domain:

Community Aspects

Risk Factor Four: School policies that emphasize formal and sever punishment structures have more incidents of students misbehaving. Policies regarding holding students back a grade level; suspension, expulsion, and track of delinquency disproportionately effect minorities but in general have negative consequences for at risk youth. The punishment model simply does not work.

Protective Factors Four: The greatest difficulty communities seem to have today is their lack of connectedness to each other as individuals who are part of something greater than themselves-their community. Community involvement offering supportive relationships with authority figures; developing age appropriate community resources like the Tribe's parks, library, the museum for providing a cultural and historical sense of identity and the Tribe's schools are areas for community members to come together as one and make a difference for all the children in the community.

Risk Factor Five: Neighborhood's create environments that can have either adverse effects or beneficial effects. Environments that are disorganized with weak social control networks result in isolation among residents and high residential turnover with allows criminal activity to prosper. High levels of poverty and crime increase the risk of delinquent behavior by juveniles.

Protective Factor Five: Promotes that community problems that affect the community's children in negative ways such as delinquency requires active interest, interaction and input from the members of the community to establish standards of education, community behavior, individual behavior and most importantly a core set of values that are acceptable to all. It is also of great value to create strong links between family and community, reducing the amount of disharmony visible in the community, recognizing the unity of being a community that agrees to a core set of basic values like those taught in the Tribal schools:

Third Domain:

Individual Aspects

Risk Factor Six: Prenatal and perinatal complications may lead to a wide range of health problems that can negatively influence development but additional study is needed to clarify this particular area.

Protective Factor Six: Good prenatal and perinatal care are important protective factors for these types of complications. They can be caused by an array of health issues that may or may not be preventable. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is preventable in that a mother should not drink alcohol while pregnant. That is a good protective factor for the child, as it is additionally with drug use. The developmental aftermath for the fetus in these situations is a preventable complication if the mother simply does not use during pregnancy and protects her child. Other issues such as diabetes and health related problems require more study. Following delivery of any child potentially subject to such complications the next best protective measure would be accurate assessment of such complications, developmental plans for educational ability in accordance with the child's disorder.

Risk Factor Seven: Psychological, behavioral, and mental characteristics can be linked to delinquency.

A fairly accurate social behavior to predict delinquent behavior before age 13 appears to relate to aggression.

Likewise there appears to be a relationship between hyperactivity, concentration or attention problems, impulsivity and risk taking and later violent behavior. Low IQ and delayed language development are also linked to delinquency. Herrenkohl and colleagues (2001:223) noted that "children with low academic performance, low commitment to school, and low educational aspirations during the elementary and middle school grades are at higher risk for child delinquency than are other children." (Risk Factors for Delinquency: An Overview by Michael Shader. OJJDP)

Protective Factor Seven: Accurate assessment would again be a good protective factor but much depends upon the observations of the parents, family and community to acknowledge that something is wrong with the child in the first place.

If symptoms are ignored, assessments are not done, help to protect the child will not happen. This requires a strong core at the center of the family and the community.

Such a core should consist of the basic agreed upon values that the community holds as their belief system. Denial of issues does not make them go away.

Meeting them head on with compassion and understanding can bring about great healing for all involved and keep Tribal youth out of the Criminal Justice System.

Such children at risk in Factor Seven require special treatment, diagnosis, and long range commitment to follow through with that which the condition requires for the child to succeed.

The Tribe received a Tribal Youth Program Grant in 2002 from the Department of Justice OJJDP to assist in developing a program for the Saginaw Chippewa Tribal community that would help the youth in this community.

The greatest difficulty communities seem to have today is just that "being a community."

The absence of connectedness to each other as individuals, friends, families, and members of something greater than the individual causes alienation and a sense of disconnectedness, especially for children.

They need to be part of something greater than just the individual self.

Life is fast paced. It takes time to be involved but without taking time, children are left with no sense of belonging.

They develop that sense of detachment that isolates them when they need connections to things that have greater meaning and definition than they as young individuals can provide for themselves.

This is why they can act like they don't care what you think, they don't care what you do, and they defy you to try to stop them from doing whatever they want.

If no one is watching them and establishing values that are held by all, why should they behave in an appropriate manner? If no one is watching; no one cares.

A lack of attachment to a larger identity that gives the youth definition is largely responsible for "gang" behavior and mentality.

The gang becomes the larger identity; it doesn't matter if it's defined as good or bad by those outside because the youth's definition is subjective.

They are not able to stand outside alone and make objective observations about the "gang" which has become the "adoptive family" for the child.

Some of the best protective factors for Tribal children are difficult to provide but the Tribe is trying with great determination to do so by offering supportive relationships with authority figures; developing age appropriate community resources like the pool, library, schools, Unity groups.

Tribal Departments such as Education, Parks and Recreation, Ziibiwing, Seventh Generation, Youth Task Force, Ngodewa-angiziwin, etc. are working to make a difference for the Tribal community especially the children.

Still none of this can make up for the effort to stay connected to their kids that families must make.

It's not easy but it can be done by nourishing the strong links between parent and child, family and community, reducing the disharmony that children see visible in the community and their own families.

Recognizing the unity of being a community often depends upon agreeing to a core set of basic values like those taught in the Tribal schools which are universally accepted as good character attributes to attain.

Communities depend upon establishing common ground.

This lies outside politics and religion and other controversial subjects, to the daily practice of basic common values such as: Nbwaakaawin is Wisdom, Zaagidwin is Love, Mnaadendmowin is Respect, Aakdehewin is Bravery, Debwewin is Truth, Dbaadendizwin is Humility, and Gwekwaadziwin is Honesty.