Preventing Adolescents From Entering the Juvenile Justice System (CCP)

May 27, 2014 updated by: Howard Liddle, University of Miami

Preventing Adolescents From Entering the Juvenile Justice System: Testing An Empirically-Supported, Family-Based Diversion Model

This randomized controlled study tests an innovative juvenile diversion model that integrates evidence-based family therapy.Immediate and longer term effects of the family intervention will be compared to Services As Usual with 120 adolescents participating in Miami-Dade's Civil Citation Program.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This study proposes to rigorously test the innovative Civil Citation Program (CCP)with an integrated evidence-based family intervention, Multidimensional Family Therapy[MDFT](Liddle, 2002).

The study sample includes youth referred to the CCP throughout Miami-Dade county and who according to CCP screening are rated as high risk for re-offending. Youth are 12-17 years old with a first or second misdemeanor charge (excluding any gang, violence, or sex crimes charge). Nearly all (97%) of these youth are ethnic minorities (Hispanic and African American). They are at risk for school failure, substance use, and chronic delinquency due to drug availability in their communities, poor family functioning, peer drug use/delinquency, and school failure / disengagement.

120 youth who enter the Civil Citation Program and are eligible for the study will be assigned to one of the two interventions: CCP+SAU or the experimental intervention, CCP+MDFT.

The study asks a classical services research question(Compton et al, 2005) - does the addition of a family therapy intervention, multidimensional family therapy, into an existing diversion program significantly enhance the program outcomes in key outcome domains: recidivism, substance use, delinquency, school and family functioning.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

120

Phase

  • 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
    • Florida
      • Miami, Florida, United States, 33136
        • University of Miami Miller School of Medicine

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

Ages Eligible for Study

10 years to 15 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Youth 12 to 17 years old
  • Parent or guardian willing to participate in assessments/treatment
  • Demonstrate risk for mental health, substance abuse, or anger/adjustment problems on the Juvenile Services Department screening warranting intervention but not requiring residential treatment

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Youth under the age of 12 or over the age of 18
  • Parent/guardian not willing to participate in assessments and treatment
  • Youth not demonstrating mental health, substance abuse or anger/adjustment problems
  • Youth requiring residential treatment
  • Youth with severe mental illness or retardation

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: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Factorial Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: CCP+MDFT
Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT) is a multisystemic, flexible intervention system (Liddle, 2002). It is a strengths-based approach promoting protective factors and reducing risk factors for delinquency, substance use, and school problems. MDFT organizes interventions in key areas of the teen's life: self of the adolescent (includes HIV-STD risk behaviors), parenting, family environment, and school/vocational functioning.
Behavioral: CCP+MDFT
Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT; Liddle, 2002) is one of a new generation of multi-systems oriented family-based intervention for adolescent substance abuse and delinquency. It has demonstrated considerable success with juvenile justice youth at various stages of their involvement in the justice system. The model has demonstrated efficacy in reducing substance use and delinquency, increasing the prosocial behaviors (e.g., family functioning, school outcomes) of substance abusing and court involved adolescents.
Other: CCP+SAU
Services as Usual (SAU) are determined on a case-by-case basis by the CCP Case Manager. SAU includes a variety of services offered by a number of community partners.
Behavioral: CCP+SAU
Services As Usual community partners will provide individualized mental health counseling and psychiatric services, psychoeducational groups and substance abuse counseling.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Delinquency
Time Frame: Intake through 9-month follow-up

Youth in CCP+MDFT will show less delinquency from intake to 9 months than youth in CCP+SAU.

National Youth Survey Self-Report Delinquency Scale (SRD)will be used to assess delinquency.
Intake through 9-month follow-up
Recidivism
Time Frame: 6 months prior to arrest that got youth in the CCP through 24 months after the baseline assessment
Juvenile justice arrest records recoding total arrests, total misdemeanor arrests, and total felony arrests for youth 6 months prior to baseline through 24 months after baseline.
6 months prior to arrest that got youth in the CCP through 24 months after the baseline assessment

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Substance Use
Time Frame: Intake through the 9-month follow-up
Youth in CCP+MDFT will report less substance use from intake to 9 months than CCP+SAU. The Timeline Follow-Back Method, Personal Experiences Inventory and Urinalyses will be used to measure substance use.
Intake through the 9-month follow-up

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of Miami

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Howard Liddle, EdD, University of Miami

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

May 1, 2009

Primary Completion (Actual)

January 1, 2013

Study Completion (Actual)

January 1, 2014

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 21, 2014

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 27, 2014

First Posted (Estimate)

May 28, 2014

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

May 28, 2014

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 27, 2014

Last Verified

May 1, 2014

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 20080174

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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