Strengthening Adolescent-Adult Networks to Reduce Youth Violence

This pilot community-partnered cluster-randomized trial will examine the feasibility and acceptability of a social network-based youth violence prevention program called Strengthening Connections for Change for youth ages 13-17 and their key adult supports.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Coping Skills; Violence in Adolescence; Adolescent Behavior; Social Interaction
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Strengthening Connections for Change; Behavioral: Job Readiness Training

Detailed Description

This pilot community-partnered cluster-randomized trial will examine the feasibility and acceptability of a social network-based youth violence prevention program called Strengthening Connections for Change for youth ages 13-17 and their key adult supports. Set in four lower resource Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania neighborhoods, this study brings together youth ages 13-17 and their self-identified key adult supports to focus on leadership, strengthening intergenerational networks, community engagement, and violence prevention.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 74
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Pennsylvania
    • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, 15213
      • University of Pittsburgh

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 13 years and older (Child, Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Youth:

• Participants must be ages 13-17 (inclusive)
• Participants must speak English

Adults

• Participants must be ages 18 or older
• Participants must speak English

Exclusion Criteria:

Youth:

• Not ages 13-17 (inclusive)
• Do not speak English

Adults

• Less than 18 years of age
• Do not speak English

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Job Readiness Training; Job Readiness Training uses a group discussion format to learn specific skills to prepare for employment including developing goals, seeking jobs, preparing for interviews, and so forth. Participants receive a 12 session job readiness training with linkages to businesses and employment opportunities. Discussions include a wide range of topics related to career exploration and job readiness.	Behavioral: Job Readiness Training; Job Readiness Training uses a group discussion format to learn specific skills to prepare for employment including developing goals, seeking jobs, preparing for interviews, and so forth.
Experimental: Strengthening Connections for Change; Strengthening Connections for Change uses a group discussion format with activities that explore identity, adolescent-adult relationships, social networks, and community engagement. Youth invite their self-identified key adult supports to jointly participate in programming and curriculum includes youth-focused, adult-focused and jointly focused activities designed to build leadership skills, enhance intergenerational networks, challenge attitudes towards violence and retaliation, and reduce violence involvement. Through 12 sessions (2 hours/session) delivered weekly, Strengthening Connections offers leadership development coupled with strengths-based youth violence prevention programming.	Behavioral: Strengthening Connections for Change; Strengthening Connections for Change is a 12-session curriculum designed to strengthen adolescent-adult support networks, build leadership skills, foster community engagement, and challenge attitudes and behaviors that foster violence involvement. During the program, youth ages 13-17 years invite their self-identified key adult supports to jointly participate in programming including youth-focused, adult-focused and jointly focused activities. Towards the end of programming participants design and carry out a community project to strengthen intergenerational connections and promote community engagement.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Participant Attendance	Attendance recorded at beginning and end of each session. Calculated as a proportion of total number of sessions attended (possible session attended #: 0-12 for youth participants and 0-9 for adult participants) using the following method (# youth at session 1 + # youth at session 2 + …)/(# of youth participants x12 sessions) and (# adults at session 1 + # adults at session 2 + …)/(# of adult participants x9 sessions). The possible proportion attended ranges from 0-1.	through intervention completion, 12 weeks
Participant Overall Satisfaction With Curriculum Content and Format Assessed by Researcher-generated Likert-scale Items	At the end of the program, participants will be asked about how satisfied they were overall with the topics discussed and format of the program using 5-point Likert scale items. Means score will be calculated across the items (possible range: 1-5; higher score means higher satisfaction). This data was collected for the Strengthening Connections for change intervention groups only.	end of program (12 weeks)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Participant Satisfaction With Weekly Session Content Assessed by Researcher-generated Likert-scale Items	At the end of each of the 12 sessions, participants will be asked about how satisfied they were with the topics discussed for that session using 5-point Likert scale items. A mean score will be calculated by taking the average of the responses on session forms completed by each youth across all time points (i.e., Session 1 Mean Score + Session 2 Mean Score + Session 3 Mean score +.../ 12 sessions) (possible range: 1-5; higher score means higher satisfaction). This data was collected for the Strengthening Connections for change intervention groups only.	end of program (12 weeks)

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in Social Network Composition	Participants will complete an abbreviated social network survey that asks them to identify key sources of emotional and instrumental support, and to characterize the nature of these relationships (network size, network density, mean link strength).	Baseline, end of program (12 weeks)
Change in Violence Perpetration	Summary score of past 30-day youth violence perpetration adapted from the Aggressive Behavior--SAGE Baseline survey (9 items, each measured on a 5-point frequency scale from 0 times to 7 or more times). Violence perpetration items will be added to create a summary violence perpetration score with 1 point for each response of at least 1 time (possible range: 0-9; lower score indicates better outcome).	Baseline, end of program (12 weeks)
Change in Violence Victimization	Summary score of past 30-day youth violence victimization adapted from the Victimization--Problem Behavior Frequency Scale (9 items, each measured on a 5-point frequency scale from 0 times to 7 or more times). Violence victimization items will be added to create a summary violence victimization score with 1 point for each response of at least 1 time (possible range: 0-9; lower score indicates better outcome).	Baseline, end of program (12 weeks)
Change in Attitudes Towards Violence	Modified from the Children's Perception of Environmental Violence Scale, 6 items assessed on 5-point Likert scale, calculated as a mean score (possible range 1-5; lower score indicates better outcome).	Baseline, end of program (12 weeks)
Change in Coping	Modified from the Healthy Pathways Child-Report Scales: Active Coping Scale, 7 items assessed on 5-point Likert scale, calculated as a mean score (possible range 1-5; higher score indicates better outcome).	Baseline, end of program (12 weeks)
Change in Future Orientation	Modified from the California Healthy Kids Survey, 7 items assessed on 5-point Likert scale, calculated as a mean score (possible range 1-5; higher score indicates better outcome).	Baseline, end of program (12 weeks)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Pittsburgh
• Collaborators: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD); National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Alison Culyba, MD PhD MPH, University of Pittsburgh

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): May 24, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): July 11, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): July 11, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 22, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 22, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): January 11, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): August 23, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 20, 2024
• Last Verified: June 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: social support; social networks; violence prevention
• Other Study ID Numbers: STUDY21030140; 1K23HD098277-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: The research team will not make individual participant data (IPD) available to other researchers.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No