Clinical trial NCT00239837: Prevention Program for Problem Behaviors in Girls in Foster Care
Official title: Preventing Problems for Girls in Foster Care
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Juvenile Justice Involvement
Drug Abuse
Keywords: Adolescent
Foster Care
Female
Lead sponsor: Oregon Social Learning Center
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
name: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
First posted: 2005-10-17
Enrollment: 100
Sex: FEMALE
Minimum age (years): 10
Maximum age (years): 12
Standard ages: CHILD
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: This study will determine the efficacy of a parent-involved intervention in preventing problem behavior in middle school girls who are currently in foster care.

Detailed description: The transition from elementary school to middle school presents a complex set of challenges for adolescents. These include increased expectations for time management and self-monitoring, renegotiation of rules and boundaries with parents, increased peer influence, and pubertal changes. For children in foster care, this transition is further complicated by issues such as a possible history of maltreatment, unpredictable changes in their living situations, and difficulty explaining their foster care background to peers and teachers. Such issues may be more serious for girls in foster care. Social problems for these girls in middle school can lead to a number of negative effects, including delinquency, substance abuse, poor school performance, mental health problems, and participation in risky sexual behavior. Despite such risks, adolescent girls are less likely to receive specialty mental health or school-based services than their male counterparts. This study is aimed at determining the effectiveness of a preventive intervention for preadolescent girls living in foster/kinship care. The intervention targets include preventing delinquency, initiation of substance use, participation in risky sexual behavior, school truancy and failure, and mental health problems.

Participants were randomly assigned to receive either the preventive intervention or usual foster care services in the summer before entering middle school (typically sixth grade). The preventive intervention consisted of weekly training and support sessions for both participants and their foster or kin parents. The sessions began at study start and continued throughout participants' first year in middle school. Participants' relationship development, delinquency, school behavior and performance, sexual behavior, and substance use were assessed through questionnaires. Parenting practices were assessed through interviews. Assessments were conducted at study entry and at Months 6, 12, and 24, and 36. A new, follow-up assessment on the girls' decision making was conducted at age 14-16.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Living in a foster home or receiving kinship care
* Are about to enter middle school
* Oregon resident
* Guardian willing to provide informed consent
* Female

Exclusion Criteria:

* male
* not in foster care
* not living in Oregon

Primary outcomes:
measure: Delinquency
timeFrame: Measured at Month 36
measure: Tobacco Use
timeFrame: Measured at Month 36
measure: Marijuana Use
timeFrame: Measured at Month 36
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Mental Health Problems
timeFrame: Measured at Months 12 and 24
measure: Participation in Risky Sexual Behaviors
timeFrame: Measured at Month 36
measure: Social Competence
timeFrame: Measured at Months 6, 12
measure: Placement Changes
timeFrame: Measured at Months 6 and 12
measure: Decision Making
timeFrame: Measured at age 15-17
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Eugene
country: United States
facility: Oregon Social Learning Center
state: Oregon
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Oregon
name: Leslie Leve, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Chamberlain P, Leve LD, Smith DK. Preventing Behavior Problems and Health-risking Behaviors in Girls in Foster Care. Int J Behav Consult Ther. 2006;2(4):518-530. doi: 10.1037/h0101004.
citation: Mendle J, Leve LD, Van Ryzin M, Natsuaki MN, Ge X. Associations Between Early Life Stress, Child Maltreatment, and Pubertal Development Among Girls in Foster Care. J Res Adolesc. 2011 Dec 1;21(4):871-880. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-7795.2011.00746.x.
citation: Natsuaki MN, Leve LD, Mendle J. Going through the rites of passage: timing and transition of menarche, childhood sexual abuse, and anxiety symptoms in girls. J Youth Adolesc. 2011 Oct;40(10):1357-70. doi: 10.1007/s10964-010-9622-6. Epub 2010 Dec 24.
citation: Smith DK, Leve LD, Chamberlain P. Preventing internalizing and externalizing problems in girls in foster care as they enter middle school: impact of an intervention. Prev Sci. 2011 Sep;12(3):269-77. doi: 10.1007/s11121-011-0211-z.
citation: Kim HK, Leve LD. Substance use and delinquency among middle school girls in foster care: a three-year follow-up of a randomized controlled trial. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2011 Dec;79(6):740-50. doi: 10.1037/a0025949. Epub 2011 Oct 17.
citation: Mendle J, Leve LD, Van Ryzin M, Natsuaki MN. Linking Childhood Maltreatment with Girls' Internalizing Symptoms: Early Puberty as a Tipping Point. J Res Adolesc. 2014 Dec 1;24(4):689-702. doi: 10.1111/jora.12075.
citation: Kim HK, Pears KC, Leve LD, Chamberlain PC, Smith DK. Intervention Effects on Health-Risking Sexual Behavior Among Girls in Foster Care: The Role of Placement Disruption and Tobacco and Marijuana Use. J Child Adolesc Subst Abuse. 2013 Nov 1;22(5):370-387. doi: 10.1080/1067828X.2013.788880.
citation: Weller JA, Leve LD, Kim HK, Bhimji J, Fisher PA. Plasticity of risky decision making among maltreated adolescents: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial. Dev Psychopathol. 2015 May;27(2):535-51. doi: 10.1017/S0954579415000140.