The Effects of WWASPS Institutionalization on the Lives of Troubled Teens: A Retrospective Qualitative Analysis – This qualitative study examined the psychological impact that a private agency of residential treatment centers had on troubled teenagers. World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS), first opened in 1998, advertised themselves as a behavioral modification program for adolescents with behavioral, emotional, and psychological troubles. Students with a wide range of issues, from poor grades to depression, were accepted. Due to the limited legality around private institutions, there is minimal public information about the structure of WWASPS interventions. Moreover, scant evidence exists that the tough love practices employed by the institutions were based in psychological or behavioral science. The aim of this study was to develop an understanding of how the teens sent to programs under this institution experienced their treatment and how they feel it has impacted them in the long run. Six adults in their late 20s and early 30s were interviewed about their teenage experience in the program and their current level of functioning. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using NVivo12 software and modified grounded theory. The process exposed 43 subthemes shared by three or more of the participants that fell under five major categories: Before institutionalization, incidents endured while in the program, their personal process at the WWASPS, post-discharge reactions, and perceived enduring consequences of today. Overall, participants saw the program as having many detrimental effects on their well-being, effects that many continue to counter in their adult lives.