Reliability and Validity of the Youth Empowerment Scale–Mental Health in Youth Departing Residential Care and Reintegrating into School and Community Settings

• Published in: Education & treatment of children Vol. 40; no. 4; pp. 547 - 570
• Main Authors: Huscroft-D'Angelo, Jacqueline, Trout, Alexandra L., Lambert, Matthew C., Thompson, Ronald
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York West Virginia University Press 01.11.2017; West Virginia University Press, University of West Virginia
• Subjects: Academic Ability; Adolescents; At Risk Persons; Behavior; Care and treatment; Child development; Child welfare; Disabilities; Education; Educational aspects; Educational Needs; Empowerment; Evaluation; Health aspects; Health services; Individual Characteristics; Individualized Education Programs; Individualized Instruction; Intellectual disabilities; Interpersonal Competence; Learner Engagement; Likert Scales; Linear analysis; Measurement Techniques; Measures; Mental Disorders; Mental Health; Planning; Predictor Variables; Psychological aspects; Randomized Controlled Trials; Rating scales; Rating scales (Social science research); Rehabilitation Programs; Researchers; Residential Care; Residential institutions; Resilience; Scores; Secondary School Students; Social integration; Student Behavior; Student Motivation; Study Skills; Surveys; Teenagers; Test Reliability; Test Validity; Testing; Therapy; Youth
• ISSN: 0748-8491; 1934-8924; 1934-8924
• DOI: 10.1353/etc.2017.0024

Empowerment has been established as an important factor in resilience in adolescence. It has also been deemed critical for youth with emotional and behavioral disorders to achieve successful outcomes across academic, social, and behavioral domains, especially during a major transition. There is currently one measure used to evaluate empowerment in youth with mental health difficulties, yet it is unclear if this is a reliable measure for youth in therapeutic residential care. The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of this measure of empowerment in a sample of youth departing therapeutic residential care (N = 138) and to examine whether or not specific factors contribute to varied levels of empowerment. Findings indicate that the empowerment measure is reliable and valid for use with youth departing therapeutic residential care. Overall, youth report high levels of empowerment at discharge from care. None of the predictors in the three multivariate general linear models were statistically significant. Limitations and implications are discussed.