CIYJ Practitioner Brief

Summary

Youth were less likely to report fearing for their safety when staff reported showing greater respect toward residents. The relationship was statistically significant, suggesting that respectful staff-youth interactions may be an important part of improving youths’ sense of safety.

Background

Youth safety is an important part of facility improvement because young people’s experiences with staff can influence how safe they feel in their facility. This analysis used CIYJ’s Youth Climate and Staff Climate datasets, representing 85 facilities across two collection periods. The question focuses on whether greater staff respect toward youth is associated with lower levels of youth fear for their safety, connecting directly to the Safety domain and providing information that facilities can consider when strengthening staff-youth interactions.

Methods

We combined Youth Climate and Staff Climate data using the facility and collection-period information available in both datasets. Staff responses about showing residents respect were coded into an ordinal respect score, while youth responses about fearing for their safety were coded as a yes-or-no outcome. We then used logistic regression to examine whether higher staff respect was associated with a lower likelihood of youth reporting fear for their safety.

Finding

Youth were less likely to report fearing for their safety when staff reported greater respect toward residents. This relationship was statistically significant and remained evident after accounting for phone contact and facility region; however, the relationship was not statistically significant for the South or West regions. The finding should be interpreted cautiously because it shows an association rather than cause and effect, and both measures rely on self-reported perceptions.

Figure 1. Higher staff-reported respect was associated with lower youth-reported fear for safety.

Implications

CIYJ coaches and facility directors might consider respectful staff-youth interactions as a worthwhile area to examine when working to improve youths’ sense of safety. Facilities may want to explore whether staff communication, relationship-building, and respectful interactions are consistent across settings and identify opportunities for improvement.