Fostering Healthy Futures for Teens: An RCT (FHF-T)

April 28, 2026 updated by: Heather Taussig, University of Denver

Fostering Healthy Futures for Teens: A Randomized Controlled Trial

This study will implement and evaluate a mentoring program designed to promote positive youth development and reduce adverse outcomes among maltreated adolescents with open child welfare cases. Teenagers who have been maltreated are at heightened risk for involvement in delinquency, substance use, and educational failure as a result of disrupted attachments with caregivers and exposure to violence within their homes and communities. Although youth mentoring is a widely used prevention approach nationally, it has not been rigorously studied for its effects in preventing these adverse outcomes among maltreated youth involved in the child welfare system. This randomized controlled trial will permit us to implement and evaluate the Fostering Healthy Futures for Teens (FHF-T) program, which will use mentoring and skills training within an innovative positive youth development (PYD) framework to promote adaptive functioning and prevent adverse outcomes. Graduate student mentors will deliver 9 months of prevention programming in teenagers' homes and communities. Mentors will focus on helping youth set and reach goals that will improve their functioning in five targeted "REACH" domains: Relationships, Education, Activities, Career, and Health. In reaching those goals, mentors will help youth build social-emotional skills associated with preventing adverse outcomes (e.g., emotion regulation, communication, problem solving). The randomized controlled trial will enroll 234 racially and ethnically diverse 8th and 9th grade youth (117 intervention, 117 control), who will provide data at baseline prior to randomization, immediately post-program and 15 months post program follow-up. The aims of the study include testing the efficacy of FHF-T for high-risk 8th and 9th graders in preventing adverse outcomes and examining whether better functioning in positive youth development domains mediates intervention effects. It is hypothesized that youth randomly assigned to the FHF-T prevention condition, relative to youth assigned to the control condition, will evidence better functioning on indices of positive youth development in the REACH domains leading to better long-term outcomes, including adaptive functioning, high school graduation, career attainment/employment, healthy relationships, and quality of life.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
234

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Colorado
      • Denver, Colorado, United States, 80208
        • University of Denver

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

13 years to 16 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Teens with open child welfare cases placed in foster care, kinship care or living at home
  • Starting 8th or 9th grade
  • History of child maltreatment according to child welfare and court records
  • Live within 35 minutes of the University of Denver (for mentoring feasibility)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Youth with a known history of severe violent behavior and/or sexual perpetration
  • Youth who are deemed unsafe or unable to participate in a community-based mentoring program by their caseworker
  • Incarcerated at baseline
  • Moderate or severe developmental delay or physical disability
  • Youth who are/will be parenting during the prevention program

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: FHF-T Intervention Group
9 months of 1:1 youth mentoring by graduate-student mentors; workshops; educational advocacy
Behavioral: FHF-T
FHF-T employs mentoring, consisting of relationship development, advocating for and empowering youth, and skill-building activities to promote positive youth development. Mentors meet individually for 2-3 hours per week for 30 weeks with each teen they mentor, in order to engage teens in positive youth development activities and provide skills training in areas including emotion recognition, perspective-taking, problem solving, effective communication, managing anger, healthy coping and resisting peer pressure for deviant activities. Youth also attend group workshops over the course of the program, in which they engage with other participants and mentors in skill-building activities.
No Intervention: Control group
Services as usual

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Court filings for delinquency immediately post intervention
Time Frame: immediately post-intervention (T2)
Presence of a court filing in administrative records for delinquent behavior
immediately post-intervention (T2)
Court filings for delinquency 15 months-post intervention
Time Frame: 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Presence of a court filing in administrative records for delinquent behavior
15-months-post intervention (T3)
Self-reported delinquency immediately post intervention
Time Frame: immediately post-intervention (T2)
The Adolescent Risk Behavior Survey (ARBS), a youth-report measure that assesses engagement in risk behaviors, will assess any delinquency, number of types of delinquency, any violent delinquency, and any non-violent delinquency
immediately post-intervention (T2)
Self-reported delinquency 15 months-post intervention
Time Frame: 15-months-post intervention (T3)
The Adolescent Risk Behavior Survey (ARBS), a youth-report measure that assesses engagement in risk behaviors, will assess any delinquency, number of types of delinquency, any violent delinquency, and any non-violent delinquency
15-months-post intervention (T3)
School suspensions immediately post intervention
Time Frame: immediately post-intervention (T2)
Any youth reported school suspensions, assessed by the Adolescent Risk Behavior Survey (ARBS), a youth-report measure that assesses engagement in risk behaviors
immediately post-intervention (T2)
School suspensions 15 months-post intervention
Time Frame: 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Any youth reported school suspensions, assessed by the Adolescent Risk Behavior Survey (ARBS), a youth-report measure that assesses engagement in risk behaviors
15-months-post intervention (T3)
Substance use immediately post intervention
Time Frame: immediately post-intervention (T2)
Self-reported number of types and frequency of substance use as assessed by the substance use scale of the Adolescent Risk Behavior Survey (ARBS), a youth-report measure that assesses engagement in risk behaviors
immediately post-intervention (T2)
Substance use 15 months-post intervention
Time Frame: 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Self-reported number of types and frequency of substance use as assessed by the substance use scale of the Adolescent Risk Behavior Survey (ARBS), a youth-report measure that assesses engagement in risk behaviors
15-months-post intervention (T3)
Passing grades immediately post intervention
Time Frame: immediately post-intervention (T2)
Youth report of passing all core academic courses, as assessed via researcher developed educational measure
immediately post-intervention (T2)
Passing grades 15 months-post intervention
Time Frame: 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Youth report of passing all core academic courses, as assessed via researcher developed educational measure
15-months-post intervention (T3)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Quality of Life
Time Frame: Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Self-reported mean quality of life as measured by the Life Satisfaction Scale (Andrews & Withey, 1976)
Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Extracurricular activity involvement
Time Frame: Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Self-reported number and frequency of extracurricular activity involvement will be measured by The Activities Scale, a project-designed measure.
Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Connectedness to school
Time Frame: Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Self-reported school connection will be measured by the mean score on the Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale (Goodenow, 1993) which assesses attachment and emotional response to a school environment.
Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Academic achievement
Time Frame: Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Academic Achievement will be assessed using standard scores on The Wechsler Individual Achievement Test Screener (WIAT Screener; Psychological Corporation, 1992).
Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Perceived Opportunities
Time Frame: Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Self-reported perceived opportunities will be assessed using mean scores on the Perceived Opportunities scale of the Adolescent Risk Behavior Survey (ARBS), a youth-report measure that assesses engagement in risk behaviors
Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Trauma symptoms
Time Frame: Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Self-reported trauma symptoms will be assessed using mean total and subscale scores of the Trauma Symptom Checklist (TSC; Briere, 1996).
Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Internalizing symptoms
Time Frame: Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Self-reported internalizing symptoms will be assessed using the mean score on the internalizing subscale of The Youth Self Report (YSR; Achenbach, 2001).
Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Externalizing symptoms
Time Frame: Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Self-reported externalizing symptoms will be assessed using the mean score on the externalizing subscale of The Youth Self Report (YSR; Achenbach, 2001).
Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Dating violence
Time Frame: Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Self-reported dating violence will be measured by The Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory (CADRI; Wolfe, Scott, Wekerle, & Pittman, 2001).
Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Coping skills
Time Frame: Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Self-reported coping skills will be measured using the mean scores on the subscales of the Children's Coping Strategies Checklist (Program for Prevention Research, 1999).
Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Conflict management skills
Time Frame: Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Self-reported conflict management skills will be measured using the mean score on the conflict management subscale of the Safe Dates Evaluation Questionnaire (Foshee, Bauman, Bennett, Suchindran, Benefield, & Linder, 2005).
Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Self-efficacy
Time Frame: Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Self-reported self-efficacy will be measured by the mean score on the Perceived Self-Efficacy Scale (Cowen, Work, Hightower, Wyman, Parker, & Ltyczewski, 1991).
Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Resiliency
Time Frame: Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Self-reported resiliency will be measured using standardized scores on The Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents (RSCA; Prince-Embury, 2006, 2007).
Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Help seeking behaviors
Time Frame: Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Self-reported help seeking will be measured by the number of identified social network members from whom the youth seek help and the frequency of seeking help on The Help Seeking Behaviors Scale (Pham, Y. K., McWhirter, E. H., & Murray, C., 2014).
Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Use of protection while having sex
Time Frame: Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)
Self-report of using protection while having sex, assessed by the Adolescent Risk Behavior Survey (ARBS), a youth-report measure that assesses engagement in risk behaviors
Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
University of Denver

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Kimberly Bender, PhD, University of Denver
  • Principal Investigator: Heather Taussig, PhD, University of Denver

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
June 1, 2015

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
December 31, 2021

Study Completion (Estimated)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
September 1, 2044

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
May 23, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
October 12, 2018

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
October 16, 2018

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
April 29, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
April 28, 2026

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
April 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • DU FHF-T

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL
  • ANALYTIC_CODE

Study Data/Documents

  1. Individual Participant Data Set

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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