Enhancing Juvenile Drug Court Outcomes With Evidence-Based Practices

Phase 2

Completed

• Conditions: Adolescent Substance Use
• Interventions: Behavioral: Contingency Management-Family Engagement (CM-FAM); Other: Usual Services (US)

• Registration Number: NCT01266109
• Lead Sponsor: Medical University of South Carolina

Brief Summary

Juvenile drug courts were developed in response to a perceived need to intervene more effectively with youth with substance abuse problems. Close collaboration between the court and substance abuse treatment provider is a defining component of the drug court model and is critical to helping youth achieve positive outcomes. Despite the proliferation of juvenile drug courts in recent years, however, evaluation of their capacity to reduce offender substance use and criminal activity has lagged. Moreover, the Institute of Medicine (IOM, 1998) and leading experts (McLellan, Carise, \& Kleber, 2003) have presented a bleak picture of the nation's capacity to meet the treatment needs of substance abusing individuals. Although community-based programs provide the backbone of substance abuse treatment in the nation, their capabilities have not kept up with major scientific advances in the development and validation of evidence-based substance abuse interventions.

Building on our research findings and experience regarding juvenile drug court outcomes as well as the transport of evidence-based practices to community treatment settings, the purpose of this study is to develop and test a relatively flexible and low cost strategy for enhancing the outcomes of juvenile drug courts by integrating components of evidence-based treatments into existing substance abuse services.

Specifically, this project aims to:

Aim 1: Adapt existing intervention and training protocols from evidence-based practices (i.e., Contingency Management for adolescent substance abuse; family engagement strategies from evidence-based treatments of juvenile offenders) for integration into juvenile drug court sites.

Aim 2: Conduct a study to examine youth (e.g., substance use and criminal behavior) and system level (e.g., intervention adherence, feasibility, retention and completion rates, consumer satisfaction, cost estimates) effects of implementing the intervention protocols in juvenile drug courts.

Aim 3: Revise the intervention and training protocols in preparation for a Stage II study if findings are supportive.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2007-09
• Study First Submitted: 2010-11-18
• Study First Submitted QC: 2010-12-22
• Study First Posted: 2010-12-24
• Primary Completion: 2012-03
• Study Completion: 2012-03
• Status Verified: 2013-05
• Last Update Submitted: 2013-06-17
• Last Update Posted: 2013-06-18

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 172

Inclusion Criteria

• Juvenile Drug Court-involved youth
• Fluency in English

Exclusion Criteria

• None

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
CM-FAM	Contingency Management-Family Engagement (CM-FAM)	-
US	Usual Services (US)	-

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Substance Use	Quarterly for up to 1 year post-baseline

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Delinquency	Quarterly for up to 1 year post-baseline
Intervention Fidelity	Monthly for up to 1 year post-baseline
Cost Estimates	Annually for 4 years
Consumer Satisfaction	Bi-annually for 4 years

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Medical University of South Carolina; 🇺🇸 Charleston, South Carolina, United States