NCT00239837

Prevention Program for Problem Behaviors in Girls in Foster Care

Preventing Problems for Girls in Foster Care

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 100 (actual)
• Sponsor: Oregon Social Learning Center · Academic / Other
• Sex: Female
• Age: 10 Years – 12 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This study will determine the efficacy of a parent-involved intervention in preventing problem behavior in middle school girls who are currently in foster care.

Detailed description

The transition from elementary school to middle school presents a complex set of challenges for adolescents. These include increased expectations for time management and self-monitoring, renegotiation of rules and boundaries with parents, increased peer influence, and pubertal changes. For children in foster care, this transition is further complicated by issues such as a possible history of maltreatment, unpredictable changes in their living situations, and difficulty explaining their foster care background to peers and teachers. Such issues may be more serious for girls in foster care. Social problems for these girls in middle school can lead to a number of negative effects, including delinquency, substance abuse, poor school performance, mental health problems, and participation in risky sexual behavior. Despite such risks, adolescent girls are less likely to receive specialty mental health or school-based services than their male counterparts. This study is aimed at determining the effectiveness of a preventive intervention for preadolescent girls living in foster/kinship care. The intervention targets include preventing delinquency, initiation of substance use, participation in risky sexual behavior, school truancy and failure, and mental health problems. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either the preventive intervention or usual foster care services in the summer before entering middle school (typically sixth grade). The preventive intervention consisted of weekly training and support sessions for both participants and their foster or kin parents. The sessions began at study start and continued throughout participants' first year in middle school. Participants' relationship development, delinquency, school behavior and performance, sexual behavior, and substance use were assessed through questionnaires. Parenting practices were assessed through interviews. Assessments were conducted at study entry and at Months 6, 12, and 24, and 36. A new, follow-up assessment on the girls' decision making was conducted at age 14-16.

Conditions

• Juvenile Justice Involvement
• Drug Abuse

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Middle School Success Intervention (MSS)	This is a 10-month, psychosocial intervention for foster parents and girls, with administration of the intervention beginning the summer before entry into middle school. The intervention consists of: (1) six summer Pride groups for the girls, (2) six summer parenting intervention sessions for the foster parents; (3) weekly foster parent training and support sessions for foster parents during the first year of middle school; and (4) weekly individual skills training for the girls during the first year of middle school.

Timeline

• Start date: 2003-12-01
• Primary completion: 2009-12-01
• Completion: 2013-04-01
• First posted: 2005-10-17
• Last updated: 2022-03-04
• Results posted: 2014-03-31

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States