DOI: 10.3886/icpsr39124.v1
title: Assessing the Relationship Between Treatment Quality, Matching and Dosage and Juvenile Justice Outcomes Among Youth With Co-Occurring Substance Abuse and Mental Health Disorders, Florida, 2016-2019
title: Version 1

description: The effective treatment of youth with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders placed in juvenile justice residential facilities aims to effect positive change among youth in the system's care and promote public safety. This study aimed to examine the prevalence of co-occurring disorders among a multiyear, statewide sample of youth completing residential placement within the juvenile justice system in the state of Florida.

The study was developed to address three specific goals:
Determine the prevalence of mental health and substance use disorders, and their co-occurrence among youth placed in long-term juvenile justice facilities across the state of Florida
Assess the impact of service matching to assessed dynamic risk factors, dosage of intervention services actually provided to each youth, and treatment quality/fidelity of those interventions on both changes in risk and protective factors during placement and post-release recidivism outcomes
provide policy recommendations related to the efficacy of best practices through the combination of service matching/dosage/treatment quality of treatment within residential facilities among youth presenting with co-occurring disorders
description: The study focused on understanding the impact of matching treatment services to assessed dynamic risk/needs, achieving dosage targets as set by the Standardized Program Evaluation Protocol (SPEP), and treatment quality on:

risk reduction during placement
protective factor enhancement during placement
and subsequent recidivism, among youth in juvenile justice residential placement with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders.
description: The study utilized data acquired from the Juvenile Justice Information System (JJIS) in Florida. The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (FDJJ) maintains the JJIS which houses data inclusive of complete offense, placement, risk assessment, and intervention dosage (for youth placed in residential programs) for all youth arrested under the age of 18 in Florida, which was used for the study, in conjunction with three annual data files of program completions with an indicator of recidivism. Additionally, the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-2 (MAYSI-2) administered at admission to the residential facility was included (which is also maintained in the FDJJ JJIS).
Utilizing this data, the study team compiled descriptive statistics to summarizes characteristics of the sample of use to determine associations between demographics, assessed differences between groups that received treatments that were matched, of adequate dosage, and of high quality versus those that did not, changes in dynamic risk and protective factors which occurred between a youth's entry into the program and their release, and predicted juvenile recidivism.
description: This study included variables regarding criminal history, medical and mental health history, and respondent demographics.
description: Presence of Common Scales: Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-2 (MAYSI-2). Grisso, T., and Barnum, R. (2000).
description: The study leveraged Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (FDJJ) data inclusive of all youth who completed a residential placement across three fiscal years (July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2019).
Criteria for inclusion included all youth who had:

An initial (at admission) and exit (prior to release) Residential Positive Achievement Change Tool (R-PACT) risk/needs assessment completed (required for all youth, necessary for examining risk/protective changes during placement)
Treatment service dosage information of interventions received during placement
Additionally, for youth with multiple residential placements within the three fiscal years examined, only the first residential placement within that period was included. Furthermore, all youth placed in residential programs specifically for juveniles with sexual offending treatment needs were excluded from the current study (based on their low recidivism base rates and differing treatment needs). These criteria resulted in a 5,587 youth that completed a FDJJ residential placement during the study timeframe. Additional exclusions included 2 youth without a MAYSI-2 at admission, 13 youth classified as "other" race/ethnicity, 208 youth placed in programs for juveniles with sexual offenses for sexual offense treatment specifically, and 165 youth who were not from Florida (committed offenses while visiting Florida) due to concerns about adequate recidivism data, resulting in a final sample of 5,469 youth included in the analysis file.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Assessing the Relationship Between Treatment Quality, Matching and Dosage and Juvenile Justice Outcomes Among Youth With Co-Occurring Substance Abuse and Mental Health Disorders, Florida, 2016-2019
description: Youths arrested under the age of 18 in Florida.
description: record abstracts