Juvenile Justice (JJ) involvement disproportionately impacts Black youth. While there is literature on the relationship between both connectedness and the perceived neighborhood environment (PNE) on mental health among Black youth, few studies focus on these aspects among Black youth in the juvenile justice system – particularly among those adjudicated guilty as serious offenders. Purpose: The current study addresses the relationship between connectedness and PNE on Black youth adjudicated guilty as serious offenders in the juvenile justice system using a subset of data from a sample of 180 Black youth aged 14–18 from the Pathways to Desistance Project. Results: Black boys reported statistically significant lower mental health symptoms than Black girls (β= − 0.21, p < .01). Gender, age, and parent social position explained a statistically significant proportion of variance in mental health symptoms (R² = 0.07, F(3, 151) = 3.31, p < .05). Discussion: PNE and connectedness did not contribute to a statistically significant change in the proportion of variance predicting MH symptoms of Black youth in the JJ system above and beyond demographic variables. This study contributes to growing knowledge that suggests a notable influence at the intersection of PNE and parent social position that contribute to the mental health functioning of Black female-identified justice-involved serious offenders.

少年司法（JJ）的参与对黑人青年产生了不成比例的影响。虽然有文献探讨连通性和感知邻里环境（PNE）之间的关系对黑人青少年心理健康的影响，但很少有研究关注少年司法系统中黑人青少年的这些方面，特别是那些被判定有罪的严重罪犯。目的：本研究使用来自“终止之路”项目的 180 名 14-18 岁黑人青年样本的数据子集，探讨了在少年司法系统中被判定为严重犯罪的黑人青年的连通性和 PNE 之间的关系。结果：黑人男孩报告的心理健康症状在统计上显着低于黑人女孩（β= − 0.21，p < .01）。性别、年龄和父母社会地位解释了心理健康症状差异的统计显着比例（R ²  = 0.07，F(3, 151) = 3.31，p < .05）。讨论：PNE 和连通性并没有导致 JJ 系统中预测黑人青年 MH 症状的方差比例出现统计上显着的变化（高于人口变量）。这项研究有助于不断增长的知识，表明 PNE 和父母社会地位的交叉点对黑人女性认定的涉及正义的严重犯罪者的心理健康功能具有显着影响。