Resilience Factors in Reentry From Juvenile Legal Facility Settings: A Scoping Review

Internationally, there has been a decline in the use of juvenile legal facilities (Puzzanchera et al., 2022). Yet, it is well documented that the process of reentering the community following placement in these settings presents numerous challenges for young people. Resilience-focused research offers a critical framework for prevention and intervention efforts to promote positive youth development; however, limited attention is given to the resilience of young people reentering communities from carceral and residential facilities. Addressing this gap in empirical knowledge requires an understanding of existing research on youth reentry and resilience. This scoping review identified peer-reviewed research from the past 20 years that focuses on the resilience of young people reentering from juvenile legal facilities, with a special interest in the subpopulations and identity groups represented and underrepresented in this research area. We identified, synthesized, and appraised 75 international and multidisciplinary studies on resilience experienced by youth who reenter from juvenile legal facility settings. Utilizing the Resilience Portfolio Model (Grych et al., 2015), we classified resilience processes relevant to youth reentry, including: (a) regulatory processes such as coping strategies and motivation; (b) meaning-making strengths such as sense of self, cultural identity, and future orientation; and (c) interpersonal relationships and social ecology, such as educational and vocational support. The utility of this scoping review includes identifying opportunities for future study on the role of resilience for system-involved young people, as well as a translational discussion of implications for existing and future practice, policy, and research in juvenile and criminal legal systems.