Melissa Harris

Research: Melissa’s master’s thesis was titled “An Exploration of Strengths, Promotive and Protective Factors among Justice Involved Youth.” The study analyzes anonymous, archival data of 59 female and 61 male justice involved youth and adds to the emerging body of literature on the strengths-based mechanisms at work for this population. The extent to which gender influences the number and type of strengths/protective factors was examined. Results revealed that, in most cases, there were no significant differences between males and females.