Prevention of Violent Behavior Among Children

Randomized Controlled Trial to Prevent Child Violence

Violence is one of the major causes of death and injury for children, adolescents, and young adults 10 to 25 years of age. This study will examine the effectiveness of a violence prevention program in pediatricians' offices. The program is designed for families who bring their 2 to 11 year old children in for a well child exam. It focuses on helping parents change behaviors related to the development of violent behavior in children.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Behavior
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Stages of Change; Behavioral: Safety Check approach

Detailed Description

More children die violence-related deaths each year than from all natural causes combined. In 2002, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 1.6 million people worldwide died from violence in the year 2000; half of these deaths were due to suicides, one-third were due to homicides, and only one-fifth were war related. The United States continues to have the highest number of violence-related deaths of all developed countries.

The WHO has reviewed the effectiveness of worldwide intervention strategies and made recommendations to promote violence prevention throughout the world. Some of the common themes across all countries included: 1) because families play a fundamental role in influencing the propensity for violent behavior, efforts to provide parents with information and strategies for raising nonviolent children are needed; and 2) early interventions to reduce childhood exposure to violence are essential.

In this study, Wake Forest University Health Sciences (WFUHS) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) will collaborate to evaluate the effectiveness of a pediatric clinician's intervention that has been extensively pilot tested. Pediatric Research in Office Settings (PROS), a program of the AAP, is a national network of practice-based clinicians experienced in research participation. PROS membership consists of more than 697 practices and 1674 clinicians across the country (in 60 AAP Chapters).

This study is being conducted in primary care pediatric clinics across the country that participate in the PROS network.

PROS practices were randomly assigned to either Group 1 (violence prevention intervention) or Group 2 (literacy promotion effort). The study included a total of 137 clinics across the country, 242 practitioners, and 4,890 patients ages 2 to 11 years old. Group 1 providers received a community violence prevention resource worksheet to help them identify community specific assets. Patient families (parent/legal guardian) received tools to help them adhere to provider recommendations. Providers were trained to apply brief techniques of motivational interviewing to help ascertain patient-centered motivation to change violence-related behaviors. Patient families' knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported behaviors were examined prior to the well child exam and at 1 and 6 months after the well child exam. Baseline data were collected in the waiting room; the data forms took 10 minutes to complete. Follow-up telephone interviews were conducted at 1 and 6 months and took 10 minutes to complete.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 6600
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Tennessee
    • Nashville, Tennessee, United States, 37232
      • Vanderbilt Universitiy School of Medicine

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria

• Parent or legal guardian seen in pediatrician's office for well child exam for their 2 to 11 year old children
• Parent/guardian is with the child the majority of time when the child is at home
• English or Spanish speaking
• Anticipate being at the same phone number for 6 to 12 months

Exclusion Criteria

• Sick child visit
• One child in family already enrolled
• No telephone contact information
• Language other than English or Spanish spoken

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
media use time
discipline techniques used
firearm storage patterns

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
knowledge about appropriate media exposure for children
knowledge about appropriate discipline techniques for children
knowledge about appropriate safe firearm storage

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Shari Barkin, MD, MSHS, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: September 1, 2001
• Study Completion (Actual): July 1, 2006

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 26, 2003
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 26, 2003
• First Posted (Estimate): March 27, 2003

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): April 24, 2007
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 23, 2007
• Last Verified: April 1, 2007

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Prevention; Firearm storage; Discipline; Parenting strategies; Media use
• Other Study ID Numbers: 1R01HD42260-1