Nathalie Gagnon

Exploring Gender Differences in the Utility of Strength-Based Risk Assessment Measures

ABSTRACT The generalizability of risk assessment measures to female populations remains up for debate; in particular, few studies have made direct comparisons between male and female civil psychiatric patients on protective factors and risk factors relevant to violence risk assessments. To address this gap in the literature, we conducted a prospective study with 102 civil psychiatric patients (60.8% male) to investigate strength-based risk assessments. Outcome data (i.e., verbal, physical, and sexual aggression) was collected after 6 and 12 months. We found a number of potentially interesting gender differences in the predictive validity of the START, HCR-20V2, and SAPROF. Findings are generally supportive of the use of established Structured Professional Judgement (SPJ) risk assessment measures with male civil psychiatric populations, and with the exception of the START, caution is warranted when using these measures with female civil psychiatric patients. Findings suggest that SPJ assessments that utilize both strengths and vulnerabilities generally performed better than SPJ assessments relying on either strengths alone or vulnerabilities alone.

The Role of Life Satisfaction in Predicting Youth Violence and Offending: A Prospective Examination

Life satisfaction in adolescence has been shown to protect against numerous negative outcomes (e.g., substance use, sexual risk-taking), but limited work has directly explored the relationship between life satisfaction and youth violence and offending. As such, we conducted a prospective assessment to explore this relationship among community ( n = 334) and at-risk youth ( n = 99). Findings suggest life satisfaction is significantly associated with decreased offending and violence within both samples and adds incremental value above established risk factors in predicting violent and total offending among community youth. Furthermore, moderation analyses indicate that the protective value of life satisfaction is greater for youth with high callous-unemotional traits. Mediation analyses suggest that youth who are unsatisfied with their lives may seek out substance use, in turn elevating risk of offending. Together, these findings indicate that efforts to improve overall life satisfaction may help prevent adolescent offending. However, future research is needed.