1 - “I don’t feel like drugs are taking over anymore”: Transition Age Young Adults’ Conceptualizations of Health and Well-Being During Reentry

Poster Number: 1
Publication Number: 1.2

Elizabeth Barnert, University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, United States; Noor Toraif, Boston University, Brookline, MA, United States; Laura S. Abrams, UCLA, Culver City, CA, United States

Background: Transition age young adults (TAY; ages 18-24) exiting jail experience many challenges like securing housing and employment, pursuing educational and vocational goals, reconnecting with families and social supports during a crucial developmental stage, while navigating reentry and meeting court requirements. During reentry, TAY may also experience  health challenges and barriers to care , especially related to mental health and substance use treatment, and how they define health may influence their behaviors and trajectories into or out of the criminal legal system.

Objective: We explore: 1) How justice-involved TAY conceptualize and define broad constructs of health, and 2) the implications of these definitions for health-related reentry services that are sensitive and responsive to TAYs’ health needs.

Design/Methods: Using purposive sampling, we conducted longitudinal interviews between June 2020 and May 2021 with TAY during reentry. We performed inductive thematic analysis to investigate TAYs’ conceptualizations of health and identification of their own health needs. The thematic analysis process involved 1) preliminarily coding several interviews to generate an initial codebook, 2) consolidating initial codes into focused codes, 3) applying focused codes to all 65 interviews, 4) collating codes into larger themes and 5) comparing themes across transcripts and cases.  

Results: A total of 65 interviews with 15 unique participants were completed monthly for up ot 9 months. Participants completed 6 interviews on average. The average participant age was 21 years old. Participants discussed their conceptualizations and definitions of health in terms of the presence of “healthiness” and lack thereof, emphasizing mental health and abstinence from substances over physical health. Specifically, participants defined health as: 1) abstaining from substances such as alcohol and drugs, 2) maintaining activities of daily living, 3) being able to stay “motivated” and “focused” on their personal and reentry-related goals, and 4) coping with both individual and reentry-related stressors. TAY defined lack of health as: 1) the persistence of trauma and mental health challenges, 2) relapsing into substance use, and 3) experiencing stress related to reentry tasks.

Conclusion(s): Findings demonstrate that TAYs’ conceptualizations of health and healthiness during reentry primarily center on successful reintegration, indicating a win-win opportunity to meet the young adults where they are at by providing developmentally aligned, accessible behavioral health treatment and social supports that enable them to thrive.