Abstract
Emotional and behavioural problems (EBPs) are linked to youth offending and pose significant problems to offender rehabilitation. There is thus a need to identify these in offenders and the co-occurrence of emotional and behavioural problems so that these can be translated to better management and treatment. The current chapter fulfils three main aims. First is to examine the prevalence of EBPs through self-report. We found that relative to non-offenders (35.4%), a higher proportion of offenders (54.0%) have at least one EBP. Second is to examine co-occurrence of EBPs in our non-offending and offending youths through a network analysis. In both networks, depression is the most central node, highlighting its importance in both networks and priority in treatment and intervention. Third, we examined the mental disorder treatment gap – defined as the gap between youths’ self-reported EBPs and whether they sought help for it, based on public healthcare records. We found that 42.8% of the young offenders reported EBPs, but had not sought help from a public healthcare institution. This was lower than the non-offenders whose treatment gap is 65.9%. Our findings call for better literacy and awareness for EBPs for youth and strengthening the screening and help-seeking process for EBPs.
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Oei, A. (2023). Prevalence and Comorbidity of Emotional and Behavioural Problems of Young Offenders in Singapore. In: Li, D., Chu, C.M., Farrington, D.P. (eds) Emotional and Behavioural Problems of Young Offenders in Singapore. SpringerBriefs in Criminology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41702-3_3
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