Juvenile Justice Girls Randomized Control Trial: Young Adult Follow-up
Condition: Delinquency; Drug Use
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      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.
    

Detailed 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.
    

Intervention name(s): Treatment Foster Care (TFCO); Group Care
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Youth placed individually in well-trained and supervised foster homes. Basic components: (a) daily telephone contact with TFCO parents; (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. Services typically last approximately 6 months.; 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%). Services typically last approximately 6 months.
Other intervention name(s): Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: delinquency; drug use; HIV risk behavior; economic costs