Strengthening Adolescent-Adult Networks to Reduce Youth Violence

Not Applicable

Completed

Conditions: Violence in Adolescence
Coping Skills
Social Interaction
Adolescent Behavior

Interventions: Behavioral: Strengthening Connections for Change
Behavioral: Job Readiness Training

Brief Summary: 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.

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.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria

Youth:

Adults

Exclusion Criteria

Youth:

Adults

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Strengthening Connections for Change	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.
Job Readiness Training	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.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Participant Attendance	through intervention completion, 12 weeks	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.
Participant Overall Satisfaction With Curriculum Content and Format Assessed by Researcher-generated Likert-scale Items	end of program (12 weeks)	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.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Participant Satisfaction With Weekly Session Content Assessed by Researcher-generated Likert-scale Items	end of program (12 weeks)	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.