VCU Healthy Communities for Youth: Evaluation of Violence Prevention Strategies to Prevent and Reduce Community Levels of Youth Violence
Overview
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Intervention
- PAR - the SEED Method
- Conditions
- Violence
- Sponsor
- Virginia Commonwealth University
- Enrollment
- 3390
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Firearm Aggression Questionnaire (FAQ)
- Status
- Enrolling By Invitation
- Last Updated
- 3 months ago
Overview
Brief Summary
The goal of this research study is to implement and evaluate a comprehensive community-level approach, Healthy Communities for Youth, that includes both a selective hospital-based prevention strategy, Emerging Leaders, and universal prevention strategies that increase Positive Youth Development opportunities through participatory action research, stakeholder education, community mobilization, and an overall focus on increasing community capacity for prevention. Key project aims are to evaluate the impact of Healthy Communities for Youth on community rates of youth violence using surveillance data and evaluate the impact of each violence prevention strategy on proximal outcomes including their impact on risk factors and protective processes related to multiple forms of youth violence.
Detailed Description
This project focuses on three communities in Richmond selected based on US Census Bureau block groups and their high rates of youth violence and concentrated poverty. The community-level effects of implementing the comprehensive community-level approach will be evaluated using a multiple baseline design. The three communities were randomly assigned such that the intervention would begin in one community starting in the fourth quarter of Year 1, a second community in the fourth quarter of Year 2, and the third community will represent a no-intervention control community receiving training and technical assistance at the end of the project. Analyses will be conducted on community-level surveillance data on violence-related variables to determine if the introduction of the community-level intervention within each community is associated with subsequent changes in outcome measures.
Investigators
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria
- •PAR-SEED Method:
- •Inclusion criteria:
- •Community residents, youth aged 12-17 and parents, living in one of the intervention communities (Community A and Community B)
- •Stakeholders who reside or work in one of the intervention communities (Community A and Community B) or who contribute other expertise
- •Be able to consent/assent
- •Exlcusion criteria:
- •Those who do not meet the inclusion criteria
- •Those with limited English proficiency
- •Emerging Leaders:
- •Inclusion criteria:
Exclusion Criteria
- •Youth younger than 14 and older than 24 will be excluded.
- •Prisoners will be excluded.
- •Those living outside our community boundaries will be excluded.
- •PAR/Youth Voices:
- •Inclusion criteria:
- •Youth in grades 9 through 12
- •Reside in one of the intervention communities (Community A and Community B) and attend the designated high school(s) serving that community (Community A or Community B)
- •Be able to consent/assent
- •Exclusion criteria:
- •Youth in grades below 9th
Arms & Interventions
Community A
Intervention: PAR - the SEED Method
Community A
Intervention: PAR-Youth Voices
Community A
Intervention: Emerging Leaders hospital-based intervention
Community B
Intervention: PAR - the SEED Method
Community B
Intervention: PAR-Youth Voices
Community B
Intervention: Emerging Leaders hospital-based intervention
Community C
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Firearm Aggression Questionnaire (FAQ)
Time Frame: Baseline and 6 months after baseline
Self-report assessments of violence involving firearms
Critical Consciousness
Time Frame: Baseline and 17 weeks later
Youth report on how much they agree with statements that reflect the awareness, perception, and reflection on societal experiences of inequality.
Reactive-Proactive Aggression Questionnaire (RPQ)
Time Frame: Baseline and 6 months after baseline
23 item measures of aggression and antisocial behavior
Beliefs About Aggression and Alternatives (BAA)
Time Frame: Baseline and 6 months after baseline
12 item measures that uses a 4-point Likert scale to assess agreement and disagreement on items involving the use of aggression
Gun Violence Questionnaire (GVQ)
Time Frame: Baseline and 6 months after baseline
Self-report assessments of violence involving firearms
Peer Pressure for Fighting (PPF)
Time Frame: Baseline and 6 months after baseline
A questionnaire about peer pressure for fighting is a subscale derived from the Problem Behavior Frequency Scales-Adolescent Report
Youth Dating Violence Questionnaire (YDVQ)
Time Frame: Baseline and 6 months after baseline
21 item measure that assesses youth dating violence perpetration
Engagement in Community Advocacy
Time Frame: Baseline and 17 weeks later
Youth report on the frequency with which they have engaged in these specified community advocacy activities.
Orientation to Community Advocacy
Time Frame: Baseline and 17 weeks later
Youth report on how much they agree with statements that indicate and orientation of working cooperatively with others for community advocacy and change.
Emotional Motivation to Engage in Community Advocacy
Time Frame: Baseline and 17 weeks later
Youth report on how much they agree with statements about feeling anger in the face of thinking about and learning about social injustice and the extent to which they engage in specific emotion regulation strategies when feeling this anger.
Civic Engagement
Time Frame: Baseline and 17 weeks later
Youth report on how important it is to have certain social responsibility and political beliefs, the frequency with which they volunteer, their voting intentions in the future, and their news consumption.
Secondary Outcomes
- Leadership Skills(Baseline and 17 weeks after baseline)
- Orientation Toward Leadership(Baseline and 17 weeks after baseline)
- Social and Emotional Skills(Baseline and 17 weeks after baseline)
- Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES)(Baseline and 6 months after baseline)
- Ethnic-Racial Identity(Baseline and 17 weeks after baseline)
- Developmental Assets Profile (DAP)(Baseline and 6 months after baseline)
- Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC)(Baseline and 6 months after baseline)
- Research skills & Orientation Toward Research(Baseline and 17 weeks after baseline)
- Involvement in Youth Oriented Activities(Baseline and 17 weeks after baseline)
- Satisfaction & Experiences in the Youth Voices Program(Baseline and 17 weeks after baseline)