Jocelyn I Meza

• PhD
• University of California, Berkeley

Reentry after confinement is a critical juncture for youth, and the environmental contexts they return to post-release play a crucial role in shaping their health. This qualitative secondary analysis explores the perspectives of Black and Latine youth and their parents/caregivers on how specific microsystems influence youths’ health during reentry....

Adolescents involved in the juvenile legal system have suicide rates three times higher than their non-involved peers, and the research-to-practice gap is evident in clinical work with these adolescents. A clinical vignette illustrates the use of a family-based program that incorporates three evidence-based clinical tools: the Columbia Suicide Seve...

Commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) is a significant public health concern disproportionately affecting ethnoracially minoritized girls. Despite strong associations of CSE with suicide attempts, little is known about correlates of suicide among girls with CSE histories. Elevated rates of externalizing disorders (i.e., attention-deficit/hyperactivi...

OBJECTIVES To examine whether adverse parental legal system involvement (incarceration, arrest) was associated with suicide risk, accounting for other adverse childhood experiences, and whether there was a moderating relationship between positive childhood experiences (PCEs) and parental legal system involvement in suicide risk. METHODS This cross...

Objective: Examine center- and therapist-level factors that may impact suicide ideation outcomes for college students with minoritized identities. Method: Data were drawn from a 2015-2017 data set collected from 136 university counseling centers that were part of the Center for Collegiate Mental Health. This study used a three-level model in hie...

Introduction Suicide is the third leading cause of death among US young adults, with significant racial/ethnic disparities related to the risk for suicide among Latine young adults. Despite the elevated risk for suicide, culturally relevant risk factors are not well‐known. Intergenerational acculturative conflict (IAC) among Latine youth is a socio...

BACKGROUND To address needs for emotional well-being resources for Californians during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Together for Wellness/Juntos por Nuestro Bienestar (T4W/Juntos) website was developed in collaboration with multiple community partners across California, funded by the California Health Care Services Behavioral Health Division’s federa...

Background To address needs for emotional well-being resources for Californians during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Together for Wellness/Juntos por Nuestro Bienestar (T4W/Juntos) website was developed in collaboration with multiple community partners across California, funded by the California Department of Health Care Services Behavioral Health Div...

Court-involved youth are more likely to report early childhood maltreatment histories, and these maltreatment histories can lead to subsequent risk behaviors such as adolescent dating violence (ADV). We used longitudinal data from the Epidemiological Project Involving Children in the Court on youth (N = 192) at first contact with the juvenile court...

Adolescents involved in juvenile legal system are at increased risk for self-cutting behavior, however, correlates associated with elevated risk remain underresearched, particularly among youth with first involvement with the court. This study utilized an epidemiological two-year longitudinal study involving 401 adolescents at first contact with th...

Over the last decade, state and city legislative efforts have underscored that racism is a public health crisis. These legislative shifts have been in concert with several professional medical organizations, including the National Academy of Medicine, the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control, and th...

The significance of youth suicide as a public health concern is underscored by the fact that it is the second-leading cause of death for youth globally. While suicide rates for White groups have declined, there has been a precipitous rise in suicide deaths and suicide-related phenomena in Black youth; rates remain high among Native American/Indigen...

Background Adopting a common elements approach, this practitioner review aims to highlight specific treatment elements that are common to interventions with demonstrated benefits in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) for reducing suicide attempts and self‐harm in youth. Identification of common treatment elements among effective interventions offe...

The United States juvenile justice population is disproportionately comprised of young men of color from low-income communities. Many of these young men have unmet physical and mental health needs, and are additionally at greater risk than the general population for chronic diseases in adulthood. In particular, community reentry following incarcera...

Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is one of the most prevalent childhood mental health disorders and is extremely affected by family factors. However, limited studies have addressed the issue from the perspective of family systems. The current study examines the associations between multilevel family factors (i.e., family cohesion/ adaptability a...

Background: Girls impacted by commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) in the juvenile legal system are three times more likely to have suicide attempts than girls without histories of exploitation. Yet, research on risk profiles and correlates that contribute to elevated suicide risk among girls with CSE histories remains scant. Objective: We sough...

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for adolescents in the United States. Despite the already alarmingly high rates of suicide attempts among adolescents, youth involved in the juvenile legal system (JLS) are up to three times more likely to have suicide attempts than their peers not impacted by the JLS. This public health crisis is also a...

Objective Suicide is the second leading cause of death among college-age students in the U.S., with disparities in suicide ideation and attempts among Latinas. The current study aims to examine if depression severity predicts suicide ideation and attempts and to examine if caregiver intergeneration acculturation conflict (IAC) moderates this link....

Young Black and Latinx justice-involved males in the United States have unique, intersecting, and disproportionate health needs that often go unmet during reentry, the 6-month period when youth return home after incarceration. Masculinity has been shown to affect various health outcomes among Black and Latinx males, who are disproportionately repre...

Background African-American and Latinx youth are disproportionately exposed to neighborhood violence and are overrepresented in the U.S. juvenile justice system. Perceived neighborhood violence is associated with negative health outcomes. Objective We examined associations between African-American and Latinx youths’ perceived neighborhood violence...

Objective Despite evidence linking Black parents’ experiences of racial discrimination and youth problem behaviors, little is known about the mechanisms that explain this link. To elucidate these developmental pathways, we tested a serial mediation model in which Black parents’ experiences of racial discrimination were hypothesized to predict incre...

Family-based interventions delivered via telehealth are a promising mode for overcoming barriers to behavioral health treatment among youth in foster care and their families. There is a dearth of research, however, regarding effectiveness of these interventions for youth in foster care, who commonly exhibit complex behavioral health treatment needs...

Black youth experience racial discrimination at higher rates than other racial/ethnic groups in the United States. To identify how racism can simultaneously serve as a risk factor for adverse childhood experience (ACE) exposure, a discrete type of ACE and a post‐ACE mental health risk factor among Black youth, The culturally informed adverse childh...

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults. Historically, Black youths have experienced lower rates of suicide; however, recent data point to significant racial disparities. In this article, the authors review current suicide rates, including alarming new data suggesting that suicide rates are two times higher a...

An increasing body of research showed families with ODD children struggle with impaired quality of family interactions, such as low marital quality and high parenting stress. Yet relatively little is known about their interplay in families of children with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms. To examine longitudinal, reciprocal association...

Background Despite well-established Evidence-Based Treatments (EBTs) for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), many low-resource settings lack EBT access. Methods We conducted a school-clustered randomized controlled pilot of CLS-FUERTE (a multicomponent behavioral EBT adapted for children in Mexi...

behavioral health needs. We examined the family as well as promotive and inhibitive environments (i.e., neighborhood and school) and their associations on behavioral health among 181 first-time justice-involved Latinx adolescents. Results showed that more optimal caregiver–adolescent attachment was associated with fewer behavioral health needs; mor...

Objective To test the acculturation gap hypothesis by examining mother–youth value discrepancies (both acculturative and enculturative) and their association with mother–youth acculturative conflict and youth mental health outcomes. Method Participants were 273 Mexican descent college students attending a large, public, Hispanic Serving Institutio...

Previous studies have demonstrated that poor quality of parental attachment and low levels of empathy are associated with adolescent’s depressive symptoms. However, the relationships between parental attachment, empathy and depressive symptoms and how they differ by gender remain unclear. The present study aimed to clarify the distinct associations...

For both women with and without childhood ADHD, positive parenting practices and positive peer relationships in childhood appear to cultivate the development of prosocial skills in adolescence. We present relevant longitudinal data, concluding that successful acquisition of these skills are vital for building healthy interpersonal relationships in...

Parents and health and service providers play key roles in supporting youth during reentry, defined as the six-month period following release from incarceration. During reentry, parents and providers help youth overcome various challenges, as well as address high medical and behavioral healthcare needs. We used thematic analysis to understand paren...

Introduction: Previous findings that inattention (IA) and hyperactive/impulsive (HI) symptoms predict later peer problems have been mixed. Utilizing two culturally diverse samples with shared methodologies, we assessed the predictive power of dimensionally measured childhood IA and HI symptoms regarding adolescent peer relationships. Methods: A US-...

Introduction: Emotional fluctuations and mood swings are common among adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Here we investigated if these problems could be retrospectively traced back to childhood behavior. Methods: Adults with an ADHD diagnosis (n = 502, 48% female) and a population-based control sample (n = 818, 59% female)...

This study evaluated the effects of teacher adherence to behavioral treatment on student outcomes. Eighty-four children (ages 7–11) completed a 12-week, collaborative school–home behavioral intervention designed for youth with significant attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms and impairment. Teacher adherence was assessed via school men...

This paper describes our approach to youth suicide prevention care. We emphasize two related interventions: (a) our emergency/acute care intervention for youths presenting with suicidal and/or self-harm episodes, SAFETY-Acute (A) also called the Family Intervention for Suicide Prevention (FISP); and (b) the SAFE Alternatives for Teens and Youth (SA...

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the age-adjusted suicide rate in the United States has increased by 33% from 1999 to 2017, and the largest increases are among female individuals aged 10 to 14 years (240% i ncrease) and 15 to 24 years (93% increase).1 Currently, suicide is the second leading cause of death for youths aged 10...

Objective: Children with ADHD often exhibit marked impairment in their social skills, but evidence-based psychosocial interventions for ADHD have shown limited efficacy in remediating these deficits. Co-occurring psychopathology exacerbates social deficits in children with ADHD and is a plausible moderator of treatment response. To identify factor...

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with self-harm during adolescence and young adulthood, especially among females. Yet little is known about the developmental trajectories or childhood predictors/moderators of self-harm in women with and without childhood histories of ADHD. We characterized lifetime risk for nonsuicidal...

Children with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) are at increased risk for developing severe negative emotional outcomes later in life. However, positive emotional outcomes are less studied. In the current study, we examine the longitudinal effects of ODD symptoms on both children’s feelings of happiness and depression from the dual-factor perspec...

Objective: Examine the moderating effects of response inhibition on the longitudinal association between social preference/relational aggression measured in childhood, and intimate partner violence (IPV) measured in young adulthood, among women with (n = 140) and without (n = 88) histories of childhood ADHD. Method: During childhood, social prefere...

This study aimed to understand the contributions of active ADHD symptoms and the diagnostic label of ADHD in yielding negative attitudes and social distance ratings. Using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (n = 305), respondents were assigned to read a vignette about: (a) a typically developing child, (b) a child with active ADHD symptoms and (c) a child wi...

ADHD problem recognition serves as the first step of help seeking for ethnic minority families, such as Latinos, who underutilize ADHD services. The current mixed-method study explores underlying factors influencing recognition of ADHD problems in a sample of 159 school-aged youth. Parent-teacher informant discrepancy results suggest that parent et...

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. The co-author, Dr. Araujo's name and the affiliation for Dr. Pfiffner was incorrect in the original version of the article. The correct information is given below.

We investigated the relation between dimensional aspects of inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity in childhood and peer problems 4 years later, as well as the potential mediating effects of intellectual function. The sample included 127 children (32 with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder). Symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity-impuls...

Distribution of mental disorders in the sample. Bars show the number of children meeting diagnostic criteria for mental disorders other than ADHD. The anxiety category includes specific phobia (eight with ADHD, 11 without ADHD), social phobia (one with ADHD, six without ADHD), generalized anxiety disorder (one with ADHD, one without ADHD), obsessiv...

Distribution of parental education.

Objective: To investigate parent reports of childhood symptoms of inattention as a predictor of adolescent academic achievement, taking into account the impact of the child’s intellectual functioning, in two diagnostically and culturally diverse samples. Method: Samples: (a) an all-female sample in the U.S. predominated by youth with ADHD (Berkeley...

Context: Although children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at elevated risk for comorbid psychopathology, the clinical correlates of ADHD in girls are far less understood relative to boys, despite ADHD being one of the most common childhood disorders in girls. Objective: To meta-analytically summarize rates of comorbid i...

Self-harm (suicidal ideation and attempts; non-suicidal self-injuries behavior) peaks in adolescence and early-adulthood, with rates higher for women than men. Young women with childhood psychiatric diagnoses appear to be at particular risk, yet more remains to be learned about the key predictors or mediators of self-harm outcomes. Our aims were to...

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with interpersonal dysfunction during childhood and adolescence, yet little is known about the romantic relationships of young women with childhood ADHD. In the present study, we draw from a longitudinal sample of girls followed prospectively into young adulthood, comparing those with (n...