Juvenile Justice Girls Randomized Control Trial: Young Adult Follow-up

Oregon Social Learning Center

Status: Completed

Conditions: Delinquency; Drug Use

Treatments: Behavioral: Group Care; Behavioral: Treatment Foster Care (TFCO)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT01341626

R03MH091611 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

R01MH054257-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

R01DA015208 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

R01DA024672

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study is a young adult follow-up of 166 females who originally participated in an RCT during adolescence due to their involvement in the juvenile justice system.

Full description

Females under age 18 years old are the fastest-growing segment of the juvenile justice population and are at risk for negative co-occurring outcomes including drug abuse, HIV/STI risk, criminal behavior, and educational failure. As they enter young adulthood, this constellation of behaviors puts them at heightened risk for early parenthood and subsequent involvement in the child welfare system (for their parenting behaviors) and the adult corrections system (for criminal behaviors). Such system involvement is costly, and its prevention would be of great significance to public health; however, very little is known about factors leading to females' success/failure in young adulthood and factors that might prevent involvement in these two public systems. This study aims to further our understanding of the pathways to and the prevention of HIV/STI risk, drug use, and child welfare and adult corrections involvement by following-up 166 women who participated in two randomized intervention trials aimed at reducing delinquency during adolescence. In the original studies, juvenile justice girls who had been referred for out-of-home placement due to chronic delinquency were randomly assigned to services as usual or to Treatment Foster Care Oregon (TFCO, formerly known as MTFC). Efficacy of the intervention with this sample has been shown at 12- and 24-month follow-ups on criminal referral rates, days spent in locked settings, deviant peer associations, educational engagement, and pregnancy prevention. The investigators propose to examine the developmental pathways for these juvenile justice girls into young adulthood (ages 21-28 years) using innovative data collection and data analytic techniques, with foci on the long-term effects of TFCO, the mediators of young adult adjustment and child welfare/corrections involvement, and the cost effectiveness and cost avoidance of TFCO on these outcomes. The overarching aim is to identify potential targets for subsequent intervention. One in-person assessment is proposed with each female and her current romantic partner (if she has one); in addition, telephone interviews will be conducted every 6 months for the duration of the study, and system data from child welfare and adult corrections will be collected.

Enrollment: 166 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 13 to 18 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• female
• 13-17 years old
• at least one criminal referral in the prior year
• court-mandated placement in out-of-home care

Exclusion criteria

• Currently pregnant

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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166 participants in 2 patient groups

Treatment Foster Care Oregon (TFCO)

Experimental group

Description:

Youth are placed individually in well-trained and supervised foster homes. Basic components include: (a) daily telephone contact with TFCO parents using the Parent Daily Report; (b) weekly foster parent group meetings focused on supervision, training in parenting practices, and support; (c) an individualized behavior management program implemented daily in the home by foster parent; (d) individualized skills training for the youth; (e) family therapy for aftercare family focused on parent management strategies; (f) close monitoring of school attendance, performance, and homework completion; (g) case management to coordinate TFCO, family, peer, and school settings; (h) 24-hour on-call staff availability to TFCO and biological parents; and (i) psychiatric consultation.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Treatment Foster Care (TFCO)

Group Care

Active Comparator group

Description:

Group Care is the usual service for youth placed in out-of-home care for chronic delinquency in Oregon. These programs represented typical services for girls being referred to out-of-home care by the juvenile justice system and had 2-51 youth in residence (M = 21) and 1-50 staff members (Mdn = 2); most also had onsite schooling. Although the programs differed somewhat in theoretical orientations, 86% reported that they endorsed a specific treatment model, of which the primary philosophy was a behavioral (70%), eclectic (26%), or family-style therapeutic approach (4%).

Treatment:

Behavioral: Group Care