Family Mediation Program For At-Risk Youth

NCT01944748 | Completed DMC

• 1 other identifier: R34DA031910
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 111
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The goal of this project is to conduct a pilot evaluation of a parent-child mediation program for at-risk youth. It is investigating whether families who receive parent-child mediation show greater improvement in family functioning, as well as adolescent substance use, academic performance, and delinquency, over a 6-week and 12-week period compared to a wait-list control sample.

Conditions

Family Functioning

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (8)

• Positive Family Relations

  6-item Positive Family Relations measure adapted from the Cohesion subscale of Moos \& Moos Family Environment Scale (Metzler et al., 1998; Journal of Family Psychology, 12, 600-619). Items are rated on a 5-point scale ("not at all" to "very much") and averaged to create a scale score.

  6-week

• Family Conflict

  5-item measure from the Family, Friends and Self (FFS) assessment scales (Simpson \& McBride, 1992; Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 14, 327-340). Items are rated on a 5-point scale ("never" to "almost always") and averaged to create a scale score.

  6-week

• Family Communication

  10-item measure assessing open vs. problem communication (McCubbin, Thompson \& McCubbin, 1996; Family assessment: Resiliency, coping and adaptation - Inventories for research and practice. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin). Items are rated on a 5-point scale ("never" to "almost always") and averaged to create a scale score.

  6-week

• Parent Support

  4-item measure (Wills et al., 2004; Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 18, 122-134). Items are rated on a 5-point scale ("never" to "almost always") and averaged to create a scale score.

  6-week

• Positive Family Relations

  6-item Positive Family Relations measure adapted from the Cohesion subscale of Moos \& Moos Family Environment Scale (Metzler et al., 1998; Journal of Family Psychology, 12, 600-619). Items are rated on a 5-point scale ("not at all" to "very much") and averaged to create a scale score.

  12-week

• Family Conflict

  5-item measure from the Family, Friends and Self (FFS) assessment scales (Simpson \& McBride, 1992; Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 14, 327-340). Items are rated on a 5-point scale ("never" to "almost always") and averaged to create a scale score.

  12-week

• Family Communication

  10-item measure assessing open vs. problem communication (McCubbin, Thompson \& McCubbin, 1996; Family assessment: Resiliency, coping and adaptation - Inventories for research and practice. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin). Items are rated on a 5-point scale ("never" to "almost always") and averaged to create a scale score.

  12-week

• Parent Support

  4-item measure (Wills et al., 2004; Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 18, 122-134). Items are rated on a 5-point scale ("never" to "almost always") and averaged to create a scale score.

  12-week

Secondary Outcomes (6)

• Lifetime and Past Month Substance Use

  6-week

• Academic Performance

  6-week

• Delinquency

  6-weeks

• Lifetime and Past Month Substance Use

  12-week

• Academic Performance

  12-week

Study Arms (2)

Family Mediation

EXPERIMENTAL

Families receive FARS family mediation program after completing baseline survey.

Behavioral: Families Able To Resolve Situations (FARS)

Wait-list control

NO INTERVENTION

Families receive FARS family mediation program after completing baseline, 6-week and 12-week surveys.

Interventions

Families Able To Resolve Situations (FARS) BEHAVIORAL

Family mediation is a method of resolving conflicts between parents and teens. During the mediation session, the parent and teen each meet one-on-one with a trained volunteer mediator, who is a neutral person who listens to each party's concerns without taking sides. Then the parent and teen come together and meet with this mediator to work on resolving conflicts they are having. Families participate in up to 3 mediation sessions.

Family Mediation

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 12 Years - 19 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• Has a child referred to FARS due to having problems in any of the following areas: (a) poor grades; (b) truancy; (c) defiant behavior; (d) running away; (e) delinquency; (f) substance use
• Agrees to participate in at least one FARS mediation session
• Agrees to complete 3 surveys and be available over the next 3 months for follow-up
• Fluent in English or Spanish

Sponsors & Collaborators

• RAND: lead

Study Sites (1)

Centinela Youth Services

Hawthorne, California, 90250, United States

Location

Study Officials

• Joan S. Tucker, PhD

  RAND

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: September 3, 2013
• First Posted: September 18, 2013
• Study Start: July 1, 2011
• Primary Completion: February 1, 2015
• Study Completion: April 1, 2016
• Last Updated: April 6, 2016

Record last verified: 2016-04

Locations

US (1)