Look for the ‘opportunity factors’, as well as the risk factors present in adolescent’s life
By James Garbarino, Ph.D.

James Garbarino, an expert on adolescents and violence, applauds the nation for sitting up and taking notice of the destruction being wrought by youths, from the well-publicized school shootings to "the long, slow massacre that occurs day after day, week after week" in cities.

But that doesn’t mean the response is always effective --- or right, says Garbarino, Ph.D., co-director of Cornell University’s Family Life Development Center and a professor of human development.

Popular prevention programs for adolescents such as Scared Straight and D.A.R.E. just don’t deliver, the research shows --- and it’s no wonder when you examine the theories behind them, he says.

"We’re the culture of action. It’s known around the world that if you want something done, get an American," he says. But what’s needed for real progress is a better understanding of the theories behind intervention and prevention programs --- something that’s more in keeping with European tradition.

Quoting German psychologist Kurt Lewin, Garbarino says, "There’s nothing so practical as a good theory, which to an American ear often sounds like a contradiction in terms." But Lewin understood that doing good practice means understanding the theory, says Garbarino.

To better match the theory with the practice, Garbarino encourages professionals to "gain an ecological perspective on human development" by considering the accumulation of so-called risk and opportunity factors present as a child develops.

Rarely is there a simple cause-and effect explanation for behavior, Garbarino says. Cause and effect are shaped by culture, community, ethnic history and gender. If you ask: ‘Does X cause Y?’ the best scientific answer is typically: "It depends."

Factors that can put a child at risk for deviant behavior include poverty, mental illness, child abuse, absence of a parent, low education of a parent, alcohol abuse by a parent and large family size. It’s impossible to tell how well or poorly a child who endures a single risk factor will fare --- because what’s more important is the context created by the accumulation of several books, including "Lost Boys: Why Our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Save Them" (Free Press, 1999).

Some provocative studies published recently show no consistent, long-term negative effects of child abuse --- when it is the only risk factor present. "That’s tough to swallow, but I think that’s what the evidence shows us," says Garbarino. "Same with poverty. By itself, it is not an insurmountable threat. It’s only when it’s linked up" with other factors that it presents a problem.

Intellectual development, besides being a factor in school success, is one pillar for resilience and dealing with adversity. According to one scale, average intellectual development, with none of the risk factors present, is 119. With one risk factor present, it dips to 116; with any two, it drops to 113. "Human beings are not wimps. We can deal with adversity," says Garbarino. "That’s why we survive as a species."

But throw in four risk factors and that’s when the big drop-off occurs; the intellectual measure slides to 93, according to the research. "The point is most kids can deal with two; few kids can deal with four," he says.

Being male, experiencing racism, and a child’s temperament also play a role in shaping development, he says.

Just as risk factors can negatively affect behavior, opportunity factors---or protective or compensatory factors---can lessen anti-social, self-destructive behavior and increase a positive outlook on life. These factors for young people are both external and internal and include such things as reading for pleasure, playing an instrument, attending a religious institution, getting support from at least three non-parent adults, communicating positively with parents, and believing in some degree of control over one’ life. As the number of assets accumulates, the potential for being at-risk drops. Boys average 16.5 assets; girls average 19.5, according to the research.

Perhaps the most powerful opportunity factor is spirituality. "There are many people in this society who are so loaded up to their eyeballs with risk factors that about the only thing that has sufficient power to transform their lives is the power of spirituality," Garbarino says.

He has studied youths burdened with risk factors, and explored why some of them commit murder and some don’t. A common theme among those who kill is spiritual emptiness. "Rather than feeling grounded and having the sense of being actively involved in a meaningful universe they feel essentially all alone in the universe," says Garbarino. "And that sense of being on your own in the universe is very dangerous in this context in which we live---for three reasons:"

The spiritually empty child has a kind of a hole in his heart. "And nature abhors a vacuum; that hole will be filled," says Garbarino. "If it’s not going to be filled with a positive, spiritually oriented meaning it will be filled by the dark side of the culture. Marilyn Manson is out there waiting to step in and say, "I will give you meaning to your life. ‘But it will be a demonic meaning."

"And nature abhors a vacuum; that hole will be filled," says Garbarino. "If it’s not going to be filled with a positive, spiritually oriented meaning it will be filled by the dark side of the culture. Marilyn Manson is out there waiting to step in and say, "I will give you meaning to your life. ‘But it will be a demonic meaning."
The spiritually empty child lacks a sense of limits. If you’re on your own in the universe, there are no built-in references for life and no built-in limits. "No one says you can only go so far because there’s something other than you," says Garbarino.

If you’re on your own in the universe, there are no built-in references for life and no built-in limits. "No one says you can only go so far because there’s something other than you," says Garbarino.
The spiritually empty child lacks an emotional foundation to fall back on when he gets sad. He goes into an emotional free fall. "A spiritually grounded kid says, "I may be sad but at least I know I live in a meaningful universe. I have that to fall back on, to hold on to," Garbarino says.

"A spiritually grounded kid says, "I may be sad but at least I know I live in a meaningful universe. I have that to fall back on, to hold on to," Garbarino says.
In such a materialistic culture as ours, it’s difficult to find room for spirituality in children’s heads and hearts, says Garbarino. When we tell kids a measure of success is material wealth we delude them, he added.

"The harm of that delusion is directly proportionate to other risk factors in the child’s life. This is a tolerable delusion, when you look at other risk factors." Often, people don’t realize they’ve been deluded until the very last moment---such as in prison, on death row. During Garbarino’s visits there, he encounters two types of inmates: "complete savages," and "monks" engaged in spiritual development and reflection.

"The point is how easy it is to become deluded and how sad it is you have to be forced into some crises to pierce the delusion," says Garbarino. "As professionals, we owe it to ourselves to our clients, to the people we’re trying to help to made the effort to pierce that delusion proactively so that we can then have a resource to bridge with the kids who are at extreme risk and who otherwise would not be available to us."

There is good news, he says. Just as the risk accumulation model says there is no one cause for behavior, it also says there is no one solution to dealing with behavior, and that there’s something for everyone to do.

Opportunities for prevention include redirecting kids, getting parents to better see cause and effect, and not trading long-term behavior changes for short-term satisfaction.

One effective approach, says Garbarino, involves "multi-systemic therapy," in which the vulnerable youth, his parents, siblings, neighbors, cousins, teachers, classmates "all gang up on him and say, "We’re all going that way; you’ve got to come along."

Therapeutic foster care, in which two trained, motivated adults team up on the child, also works, according to the Office of Juvenile Justice Prevention.

What does not work is a peer-oriented group approach, in which kids outnumber the adults. Peer-group prevention programs can actually make some kids worse, according to the research. A Columbia University study shows that aggressive and negative kids can re-socialize their peers unless extreme adult authority and control are exercised, Garbarino says.

As risk factors build up, the spiritual component becomes increasingly important as a resource to protect, reform and transform. Once you incorporate spirituality in therapy, says Garbarino, "you begin to have vistas of intervention and transformation which are closed off to you otherwise."

He urged professionals to provide strong spiritual grounding from the start by ensuring that intervention and rehabilitation programs contain a spiritual component. And professionals as individuals also must be prepared to deliver.

Mahatma Gandhi wrote that we must be the change we wish to see in the world, says Garbarino. "And in this context it means you begin every day with a period of meditation and preparation so we can be that change we wish to see in the world."

James Garbarino, Ph.D. is co-director of the Family Life Development Center and professor of human development at Cornell University and has served as president of the Erikson Institute for Advanced Study in Child Development (1985-1994). He is a member of the American Psychological Association and has served as a consultant or advisor to many organizations including the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse, the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, NIMH, AMA, National Black Child Development Institute, National Science Foundation, National Resource Center for Children in Poverty, and Childwatch International Research Network. He has authored or edited numerous books including his two most recent---Lost Boys: Why Our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Save Them (1999), and Raising Children in a Socially Toxic Environment (1995).

Shared by Colleen Holby of Children’s Village, Dobbs Ferry, NY
Written by Colleen Fitzpatrick
Reprinted with permission from Manisses Communications Group. For more information, please visit our website at www.manisses.com or call our customer service department at 1-800-333-7771.
 

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Every minister to troubled youth needs this journal:  NCAYR Digest
NCAYR Digest is a quarterly publication of the The National Chaplains Association for Youth at Risk.

The National Chaplains Association for Youth at Risk (NCAYR) exists to provide professional development and support for those who are engaged in ministry to youth at risk and to advocate for those youth to have access to the practice of their family’s faith and to be served by qualified chaplains.  For 58 years, NCAYR has been about this mission, primarily by hosting annual conferences each Fall. In 2003 we added a new journal NCAYR Digest to enhance our communication as ministers to at-risk youth and to fill a vacuum in our field. The NCAYR Digest is a unique journal tailored to people like us, people who specialize in the spiritual issues of kids who are delinquent, abused, abandoned and neglected. The "fatherless" children whom God favors (Psalm 68:5)...

Get your subscription to the NCAYR Digest today!

Here’s how…

Become a member of NCAYR.  NCAYR membership offers you a subscription to NCAYR Digest and voting privileges.
Subscribe to the NCAYR Digest. Write a story from your ministry; write us a book or movie review; send us some new research in our field; if your article gets published, you get that issue free.
Membership dues = $40. (Includes member discounts and subscription to the Digest)

Subscription to the NCAYR Digest = $25. Per year for 4 issues.

I am hopeful that you will join us in sharing the good news of our ministry with each other and everyone else in our important field of ministry.

May God let his face shine upon us, look upon us kindly, and give us his peace…

Sincerely yours,

Gene Hausmann, D. Min.
NCAYR.ORG Communications Officer
Holy Cross Childrens Services
8759 Clinton-Macon Road
Clinton, MI 49236

National Chaplains’ Association for Youth at Risk.

Send your check (made payable to NCAYR) and address to Gene Hausmann at the above address.

 

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NCAYR Digest Index
*******(If you would like to view one of these articles, email Gene at ghausman@hccsnet.org)

AAPC: American Association of Pastoral Counselors (Spring 2005)
ACPE: Association of Clinical Pastoral Education (Spring 2005)
Adolescent heart and soul: Melanie Wilson (Summer 2005)
Aftercare Ministry (Summer 2004)
Aftercare Ministry: SAMMY Project (Fall 2003)
Anger at God Research (Spring 2003)
APC: Association of Professional Chaplains (Spring 2005)
APC: Association of Professional Chaplains (Summer 2003)
Beckett, James (Winter 2003)
Benjamin, Reginald (Summer 2004)
Bible Software (Spring 2005)
Bobby's story: Becoming a Christian (Summer 2004)
Brian's story: Gang Member to Lawyer (Winter 2002)
CAPPE: Canadian Association of Professional Pastoral Education (Spring 2005)
CAPPE: Canadian Association of Professional Pastoral Education (Summer 2003)
CARF: Standards for quality pastoral care (Winter 2005)
Chaplain Outcome Research (Winter 2002)
Chaplain Qualifications (Fall 2004)
Chaplain Qualifications (Spring 2004)
Chaplains Qualifications (Winter 2004)
Chaplains Reduce Aftercare Costs (Winter 2002)
Chaplains Reduce Recidivism (Winter 2002)
Church and State conflict (Spring 2004)
Circles of Healing: Restored Justice (Fall 2004)
Client Satisfaction Study (Winter 2002)
Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) (Winter 2003)
COA: Council on Accreditation (Fall 2005)
COA: Standard for spiritual care in youth serving institutions (Spring 2005)
Codella, Lou: Wins top Westchester award (Fall 2004)
Codella, Lou: "A point of light" (Fall 2003)
Conference 2002: Rhode Island (Winter 2002)
Conference 2003: Michigan (Winter 2003)
Conference 2004: Niagra Falls (Fall 2004)
Conference 2004: Rhode Island (Summer 2004)
Conference 2005: Cleveland (Fall 2005)
Conference 2005: Cleveland (Spring 2005)
Conference 2005: Cleveland (Summer 2005)
Conference 2005: Cleveland (Winter 2005)
Conference 2006: Michigan 2: A preview (Winter 2005)
Connecticut Symposium, Mt. St. Johns: Spirituality of At Risk Youth (Winter 2004)
Corey's story: Anger at God (Spring 2003)
Council on Accreditation: Standards for Pastoral Care (Winter 2002)
Deane, Fr. Peter: Golden Jubilee (Winter 2003)
Dr. Kamuyu-Wa-Kang'ethe (Fall 2003)
Dr. Kamuyu-Wa-Kang'ethe (Summer 2003)
Evans, Fr. John (Fall 2003)
Evans, Fr. John (Summer 2004)
Evans, Fr. John (Spring 2005)
Faul, Lisa (Spring 2005)
Friesen, Michael : Spiritual care for children living in specialized settings (Fall 2003)
Frohmiller, Deacon Richard (Spring 2003)
Garbarino, James (Fall 2004)
Gay-To-Straight Research (Spring 2004)
Grief and Recidivism Research (Spring 2003)
Grief work: Pastoral care for children and adolescents who suffer with grief (Summer 2005)
Grimm, Charles (Summer 2003)
Grimm, Charles (Winter 2002)
Groeschel, Fr. Benedict (Spring 2004)
Grossoehme, Dan (Summer 2005)
Grossoehme, Daniel (Spring 2005)
Guilt and Recidivism (Fall 2005)
Guilt and Shame Research (Fall 2005)
Guilt: The most important assessment question (Summer 2003)
Hardwired to Connect: The new scientific case for authoritative communities (Winter 2003)
Hardy, Mike (Winter 2003)
Hausmann, Gene (Every Issue)
HIPAA Law (Spring 2003)
HIPAA Law (Summer 2003)
Holby, Colleen (Fall 2003)
Holby, Colleen : Silver Jubilee (Summer 2004)
Holy Cross Children's Services (Fall 2005)
Holy Cross Children's Services (Summer 2004)
Holy Cross Children's Services (Summer 2005)
Horka, Steve (Summer 2004)
Humility of Mary sisters: Funding a pilot aftercare project (Summer 2004)
Isley, George (Fall 2005)
JCAHO: Standards for Pastoral Care (Spring 2003)
Jones, Janet New chaplain at Vista Maria (Fall 2004)
Jon's story: Can a sex offender change? (Winter 2005)
Joshua's story: Facing the victims of crime (Summer 2003)
Juvenile Suicide (Spring 2005)
Kara's story: She thought she was lesbian (Spring 2004)
Karen's story: Dealing with grandmother's death (Fall 2003)
Keagle, Sue Anne (Summer 2003)
Keagle, Sue Anne (Winter 2003)
Kok, James The pastoral Counseling treatment planner (Spring 2004)
Larson, Scott (Summer 2003)
Larson, Scott (Winter 2002)
Larson, Scott (Winter 2003)
Letters to God (Summer 2005)
Lilly Foundation Grant (Spring 2005)
Link, Marilyn (Every Issue)
Mandeville, Meghan (Fall 2004)
Marla's story: My mother was a prostitute (Spring 2003)
Martin, Marilyn : Another psychiatrist promotes pastoral care (Spring 2004)
Martinus, Joe (Spring 2003)
Masturbation (Spring 2004)
Matt's story: The boy who killed his father (Summer 2003)
Ministry Malpractice (Winter 2002)
Mission Statement (Spring 2003)
Mission Statement (Summer 2003)
Motrie, Irene (Spring 2003)
Motrie, Irene (Summer 2004)
Mueller, Walter (Summer 2004)
Myers, Katrina (Fall 2003)
NACC: National Association of Catholic Chaplains (Spring 2005)
NACC: National Association of Catholic Chaplains (Summer 2003)
NAJC: National Association of Jewish Chaplains (Spring 2005)
NAJC: National Association of Jewish Chaplains (Summer 2003)
NCAYR Business Meeting Minutes (Winter 2005)
NCAYR Business Meeting Minutes: 2003 (Winter 2003)
NCAYR Business Meeting Minutes: 2004 (Winter 2004)
NCAYR History: 1948 (Summer 2003)
NCAYR History: 1957 (Winter 2002)
NCAYR History: 1982 (Fall 2005)
NCAYR Philosophy (Fall 2005)
NCAYR: Proposed new standard for pastoral care (Winter 2005)
O'Donnell, Kathleen (Spring 2003)
O'Donnell, Kathleen (Summer 2004)
Orphans and Widows (Spring 2005)
Ponds, Kenneth: Shepherding spiritually adrift youth (Fall 2003)
Post, Stephen (Spring 2005)
Post, Stephen (Summer 2005)
Practice Unbound: A study of secular spiritual and religious activities in youth programs (Fall 2003)
Prairie St. John's (Summer 2004)
Psychiatrist and Spirituality (Spring 2003)
Race and Pastoral Care (Fall 2005)
Race, Religion and Recidivism (Fall 2005)
Ray's story: A gay suicide (Spring 2004)
Recidivism Research: Chaplains reduce recidivism (Summer 2004)
Reducing Recidivism (Fall 2003)
Restorative Justice (Winter 2003)
Restorative Justice Research (Fall 2003)
Restorative Justice Theology (Summer 2003)
Restored Justice: Circles of Healing (Fall 2004)
Schepers, Lori Jo (Winter 2003)
Self-Abuse (Summer 2004)
Sexual Orientation Conflict (Spring 2004)
Seymour, Ann (Summer 2003)
Seymour, Ann (Winter 2003)
Shimron, Yonat (Summer 2005)
Smith, Don Gathering Chaplains in Maine (Fall 2004)
Smith, Mary Laurel (Summer 2003)
Smith, Mary Laurel (Summer 2004)
Spiritual Assessment questions: The most important question (Fall 2005)
Spiritual assessment tool: Ages 9-17 (Spring 2005)
Spiritual Care Plan: Anger at God (Spring 2003)
Spiritual Care Plan: Church Connection (Winter 2005)
Spiritual Care Plan: Sexual orientation conflict (Spring 2004)
Spiritual Care Plan: The guilt process (Summer 2003)
Spirituality and mental health outcomes: Research findings (Summer 2004)
Spiritually competent youth-serving agencies (Summer 2005)
Standard for spiritual care in youth serving agencies: British Columbia (Spring 2005)
Standard for spiritual care in youth serving institutions: COA (Spring 2005)
Standards for pastoral care (Spring 2005)
Standards for quality spiritual care in youth-serving agencies (Fall 2005)
Straight Ahead Ministries (Spring 2003)
Straight Ahead Ministries (Spring 2004)
Straight Ahead Ministries (Spring 2005)
Straight Ahead Ministries (Summer 2005)
Straight Ahead Ministries (Winter 2002)
Straight Ahead: Recidivism (Spring 2003)
Teen Ranch (Spring 2004)
Teen Ranch (Summer 2004)
Teen Ranch closes (Fall 2004)
Teenagers Faith: What it means for youth workers (Summer 2005)
The Passion of the Christ (Summer 2004)
Throckmorton, Warren (Spring 2004)
VanHarn, Karl (Winter 2003)
Violent Youths and Spirituality (Fall 2004)
Walker, Karla (Fall 2003)
What vulnerable adolescents have to say about spirituality (Fall 2004)
Why I became a chaplain: Karen Wolcott (Spring 2005)
Williams, Joe (Summer 2003)
Wilson, Melanie Adolescent heart and soul (Summer 2005)
Wilson, Melanie Spiritually competent institutions (Fall 2005)
Wilson, Melanie (Fall 2003)
Wilson, Melanie (Fall 2004)
Wilson, Mike (Summer 2003)
Wolcott, Karen Why I became a chaplain (Spring 2005)


If you would like to view one of these articles, email Gene at ghausman@hccsnet.org

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