Date of Award
8-2025
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School
Psychology
Committee Chair
Dr. Stephanie Smith
Committee Chair School
Psychology
Committee Member 2
Dr. Nora Charles
Committee Member 2 School
Psychology
Committee Member 3
Dr. Freddie Pastrana-Rivera
Committee Member 3 School
Psychology
Committee Member 4
Dr. Laura Gulledge
Committee Member 4 School
Criminal Justice, Forensic Science, and Security
Abstract
Justice-involved youth are at risk for a variety of psychosocial difficulties, including anger, aggression, and emotion regulation challenges. Short-term juvenile detention settings offer a unique opportunity to provide psychological interventions to youth before they are returned to the community or sentenced to long-term placements. However, implementation barriers within these settings often hinder the delivery of evidence-based care. This study developed and tested a brief, two-session anger management intervention for adolescents detained in a short-term juvenile detention center in the Southeastern United States, drawing on evidence-based practices from prior work with justice-involved youth. The present study examined implementation outcomes (i.e., feasibility, acceptability, and appropriateness) and preliminary changes in emotion regulation, outcome expectations for aggression, and social-cognitive processing using a non-randomized, single-group pre-post design. Findings supported the intervention’s feasibility, appropriateness, and acceptability in this setting. Analyses showed a significant reduction in beliefs that aggression leads to tangible rewards (e.g., respect, getting one’s way), suggesting a promising shift in youth perceptions of the benefits of aggression. However, there was a non-significant trend toward increased beliefs that aggression can help avoid mistreatment (e.g., being disrespected or picked on). Youth also demonstrated improvements in positive emotion regulation strategies and benign intent attributions, though anger and hostile intent attributions remained stable. These results provide preliminary support for the benefits of brief, feasible interventions that can be embedded in short-term detention settings, while also identifying areas, such as protective beliefs about aggression, for further adaptation and monitoring.
ORCID ID
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7025-9064
Copyright
Cassidy L. Tennity, 2025
Recommended Citation
Tennity, Cassidy L., "A Brief Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention for Emotion Regulationand Aggression in Justice-Involved Adolescents: Preliminary Outcomes from a Non-Randomized Trial in Short-Term Juvenile Detention" (2025). Dissertations. 2378.
https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/2378