Leveraging Evidence to Activate Parents

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

Get a concise snapshot of the trial, including recruitment status, study phase, enrollment targets, and key timeline milestones.

Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

141 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2021-03-01

Study Completion Date

2025-03-30

Brief Summary

Review the sponsor-provided synopsis that highlights what the study is about and why it is being conducted.

The juvenile justice (JJ) system serves over a million cases every year and represents the primary referral source for treatment of substance use and antisocial behavior in youth. However, engagement of the JJ population in treatment is alarmingly low; further, rural communities have neither access to evidence-based practices (EBPs) nor the finances and treatment infrastructure to support their delivery. However, using an innovation called task-shifting, juvenile probation/parole officers in rural communities might be able to deliver a central change mechanism for EBPs (parent activation), with the ultimate goal of improving JJ youth outcomes.

Related Clinical Trials

Explore similar clinical trials based on study characteristics and research focus.

Automating Peer Learning to Reduce Alcohol Use and Related Deviant Behavior in Secondary School

NCT04478240

Substance Use Stress Relation, Interpersonal +5 more

COMPLETED NA

Individual vs. Group Community Reinforcement Training to Help Parents of Substance-using Treatment-refusing Youth

NCT01829789

Substance Use Disorders Treatment Refusal

COMPLETED NA

Enhancing Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

NCT03249350

Substance Use Disorders

COMPLETED NA

A Substance Use Adaptation of Fathering Through Change

NCT04532619

Parenting Substance Use

COMPLETED NA

Enhancing Substance Use Treatment Services to Decrease Dropout and Improve Outpatient Treatment Utilization in Emerging Adults

NCT05374395

Substance Use Disorders

ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING NA

Detailed Description

Dive into the extended narrative that explains the scientific background, objectives, and procedures in greater depth.

Juvenile justice (JJ) is the public service system most impacted by alcohol and other drug (AOD) use in youth, and outcomes for these youth, their families, and society are grave. Thus, delivery of effective interventions with JJ youth is of considerable importance. The evidence-based practices (EBPs) with the strongest outcomes for JJ youth are family-based, but many communities do not have the resources to support their delivery. This is particularly true in rural areas where AOD treatment resources are scarce. Further, even when communities can support a family-based EBP, JJ youth face barriers to treatment participation. Indeed, JJ youth are routinely referred for treatment, but data indicate less than 1 in 5 actually receive treatment. Juvenile probation/parole officers (JPOs) are on the front line of this crisis. This workforce is in every community across the nation and routinely interfaces with JJ youth to try to achieve positive outcomes. However, JPOs often face limited options for treatment referrals; further, they do not have the time or training to deliver one of the full-scale, family-based EBPs. As a consequence, JPOs try to manage the behavior of their probationers with a small menu of youth-based interventions that have limited success (e.g., structured sanctions). One strategy for achieving better outcomes in low-resourced, rural settings that cannot deploy a full-scale EBP, called task-shifting, involves redistribution of tasks downstream to an indigenous workforce that has less training. Importantly, reviews indicate that the leading EBPs for JJ youth share a common change mechanism: activation of parents. Thus, while the family-based EBPs cannot be task-shifted, perhaps the central change mechanism of these EBPs (parent activation) can be shifted downstream to enhance JPO practice. JJ leaders already cite improved parent engagement as a top priority, but it is also one of the most challenging problems facing the JJ system. Fortuitously, within pediatric healthcare services, there is an effective intervention called parent activation (PA) comprised of concrete tasks by healthcare service providers to better engage and motivate parents of at-risk youth. PA has been delivered by clinicians and also by paraprofessionals. Thus, this healthcare service advance might be primed for use by JPOs to activate parents and achieve more positive JJ youth outcomes. The proposed stepped-wedge cluster randomized trial investigates the use and impact of PA by JPOs across 32+ rural counties. Aims are to: (1) determine the capacity of JPOs to deliver PA within JJ services, (2) examine impact of PA delivery on de-identified family outcomes, and (3) examine implementation outcomes, assessed via the Stages of Implementation Completion, for PA in the JJ service system, including JPO inner context variables that might impact implementation. In a context where the nation's behavioral healthcare service system is struggling to meet the needs of JJ youth, JPOs across the nation, and particularly in rural communities, are positioned to make a large impact via use of an advance from pediatric healthcare services.

Conditions

See the medical conditions and disease areas that this research is targeting or investigating.

Substance Use

Study Design

Understand how the trial is structured, including allocation methods, masking strategies, primary purpose, and other design elements.

Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

SEQUENTIAL

Primary Study Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

Review each arm or cohort in the study, along with the interventions and objectives associated with them.

Parent Activation

This group of JPOs will deliver Parent Activation as a service to the juveniles and families on their caseloads.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Parent Activation

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Parent Activation (PA) is comprised of concrete social learning theory steps (i.e., direct instruction, modeling, practice opportunities, and reinforcement) that aim to enhance a parent's confidence, knowledge, and ability to manage his/her child's health. PA is applicable across a range of conditions, including behavioral and psychiatric problems, and it can be delivered by varied providers, including paraprofessionals.

Usual Services

This group of JPOs will deliver services as usual to the juveniles and families on their caseloads.

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Usual Services

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

This intervention refers to the typical techniques that JPOs employ to monitor the juveniles on their caseloads (e.g., regular meetings with youth and parents to ensure the youth is following conditions of probation and issuing swift sanctions \[community service; detention\] if conditions are not being followed).

Interventions

Learn about the drugs, procedures, or behavioral strategies being tested and how they are applied within this trial.

Parent Activation

Parent Activation (PA) is comprised of concrete social learning theory steps (i.e., direct instruction, modeling, practice opportunities, and reinforcement) that aim to enhance a parent's confidence, knowledge, and ability to manage his/her child's health. PA is applicable across a range of conditions, including behavioral and psychiatric problems, and it can be delivered by varied providers, including paraprofessionals.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Usual Services

This intervention refers to the typical techniques that JPOs employ to monitor the juveniles on their caseloads (e.g., regular meetings with youth and parents to ensure the youth is following conditions of probation and issuing swift sanctions \[community service; detention\] if conditions are not being followed).

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL