Community-Based Violence Prevention for High-Risk Youth
Condition: Fighting Behavior; Aggression
MeSH terms: Aggression
Study type: Interventional
Phase: Phase 2

Summary: 
      Study Aims: 1) Assess the receptiveness of youth and families to injury prevention
      interventions initiated from the emergency department; 2) In a sample of high risk youth
      presenting to the ED with interpersonal assault injuries, determine the effectiveness of a
      home-based family intervention with community linkage compared to a control group.
    

Detailed description: 
      The leading causes of death among U.S. children and adolescents are due to injuries. In the
      US, homicide is the third leading cause of death for 10-14 year olds and second leading cause
      of death for those 15-19 years. For African-Americans, homicide is the leading cause of death
      for males and females ages 15-34. Findings from our city-wide surveillance of adolescent
      injuries have found that for every death due to injury in youth, there were 8
      hospitalizations and 102 ED visits. Non-fatal injuries represent significant morbidity and
      may be a sentinel event and opportunity for prevention.

      Assault-injured patients age 9-15 and their families seen in the ED or hospitalized will be
      recruited into the study. Whenever possible, families will be recruited while they are still
      in the hospital, others will be contacted by phone. We will randomize families to an
      intervention group consisting of home visits involving a four session parental monitoring
      curriculum for parents and a 6-8 session mentoring and problem solving curriculum for youth
      occurring over 2-6 months. Both intervention and control groups will receive community
      referrals to needed services. Interview assessments of parents and youth will occur in person
      at baseline and 6 months, and by phone at 12 and 18 months after recruitment. Assessments
      will include face to face and Walkman questioning, and phone questioning with DigitGrabber
      touch tone response. The parent and youth assessments will include detail on cause of injury,
      past experience risk factors, protective factors, perceived risk and self-efficacy. Medical
      chart abstraction will be performed and aggregate data will be obtained from the police
      department about the number of youth in the intervention and control groups that have had
      contact with the police. We intend to recruit up to 400 families over 2-3 years in order to
      achieve follow-up with at least 198 families. Human Subjects: Male and female adolescents
      9-15 years of age and their parents who are residents of the Washington Metropolitan area
      will be eligible for participation. Written parental consent and youth assent will be
      obtained. There are no physical risks. Potential risks include unintentional uses of the
      information gathered including disclosure of information that may be potentially legally
      incriminating. All efforts will be made to protect participant confidentiality. If
      information is revealed that places someone in immediate danger, disclosure may be necessary
      which is explained in the consent form. There are potential benefits including facilitated
      referral for therapeutic community-based intervention, access to an intervention of
      demonstrated effectiveness without cost, and cash incentives. In addition, they will
      contribute to knowledge about youth injury in the community.
    

Intervention name(s): Mentoring and violence prevention curriculum with parental monitoring
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single
Primary purpose: Prevention