The relationship between justice system non-involvement and the social and emotional wellbeing of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

Figures & data

Table 1. Comparison of justice involved and justice non-involved sample statistics.

	Not Involved		Involved		Total
	n	%	n	%	n	%
Gender
Male	265	44.4	19	55.9	284	45.0
Female	324	54.3	14	41.2	338	53.6
No gender	1	0.2	—	—	1	0.2
Not answered	7	1.2	1	2.9	8	1.3
Location
Central Australia	29	4.9	7	20.6	36	5.7
Western Australia	412	69.0	20	58.8	432	68.4
NSW	156	26.1	7	20.6	163	25.8
Aboriginal status
Aboriginal	587	98.3	32	94.1	619	98.1
Torres Strait Islander	—	—	—	—	—	—
Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander	10	1.7	2	5.9	12	1.9

Table 2. Statistically significant predictor variables.

	Not Involved		Involved		p
Variable	M	SD	M	SD
Age	12.17	1.67	13.59	1.28	<.001
Health^a	2.72	.98	2.00	1.17	<.001
Emotional Scale^b	3.53	2.33	4.45	2.12	.028
Conduct Scale^b	3.45	1.80	4.79	2.26	<.001
Peer Scale^b	4.66	1.66	5.33	1.87	.022
Prosocial Scale^c	6.95	2.14	6.00	2.68	.014
SDQ Total Difficulties Score^d	16.85	5.60	20.18	6.69	.001

Note. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is comprised of five scales (Emotional Scale, Conduct Scale, Hyperactivity-Inattention Scale, Peer Problem Scale and Prosocial Scale), each of which are scored separately. The Total SDQ score is the sum of scores from the Emotional Scale, Conduct Scale, Hyper-Inattention Scale and Peer Problems Scale.

^aMeasured from poor (0) to excellent (4). ^bScores range from 0 to 10, higher scores indicative of higher risk of clinically significant problems. ^cScores range from 0 to 10, lower scores (0–4) indicative of very low prosocial qualities. ^dScores range from 0 to 40, scores between 20 and 40 are indicative of very high total difficulties.

Table 3. Results of logistic regression examining justice system non-involvement.

Variable	B	SE	Wald Statistic	p	OR [95% CI]
Age	–0.46	0.15	9.59	.002	0.63 [0.47,0.84]
Health	0.55	0.22	6.03	.014	1.74 [1.12,2.69]
Emotional Scale	0.18	0.21	0.70	.402	1.20 [0.79, 1.82]
Conduct Scale	–0.12	0.20	0.34	.561	0.89 [0.60, 1.32]
Peer Scale	0.09	0.23	0.15	.704	1.09 [0.70, 1.70]
Prosocial Scale	0.30	0.12	6.60	.010	1.35 [1.07,1.69]
Total SDQ	–0.20	0.14	1.88	.170	0.82 [0.62, 1.09]

Table

Variable	χ^2	df	p
Participates in a club	1.35	1	.246
Participates in team sport	0.79	1	.375
Participates in sport^a	—	—	—
Participates in creative activity^a	—	—	—
Participates in academic activity^a	—	—	—
Participates in new skill activity^a	—	—	—
Participates in religious activity^a	—	—	—
Participates in other activity^a	—	—	—
Culture identity	1.32	618	.189
Culture confident	1.46	618	.144
Importance of language	1.92	618	.055
Language^a	—	—	—
Culture at school^a	—	—	—
Culture ancestors	0.42	91	.677
Close to family	–0.01	92	.990
Proud family	–0.61	93	.546
Engaged with family	0.01	91	.990
Other support	1.18	92	.243
Family identity	0.30	92	.763

^aThese variables violated the chi-square assumption of expected counts and could not be analysed.

Table

Variable	Statistic	df	p
Age	4.93	626	<.001
Level of activity	–0.89	554	.373
Health	–3.86	588	<.001
Importance of culture	–1.67	35.15	.103
Emotional Symptoms scale	2.20	611	.028
Conduct problems scale	4.04	610	<.001
Hyperactivity–inattention scale	1.15	611	.249
Peer problems scale	2.29	612	.022
Prosocial behaviour scale	–2.46	612	.014
SDQ total difficulties score	3.27	611	.001