Trauma Focus Model for Reducing Long-Term Foster Care

NCT02193126 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 8977 3
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 462
• Locations: 0 countries
• Sites: N/A

Brief Summary

The Trauma Focus Model for Reducing Long-Term Foster Care Project with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is implementing a trauma-focused intervention, Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy (TARGET) to increase permanency rates for a target population of children identified as being most at risk of long-term foster care.

Conditions

Foster Care

Keywords

Long term foster care; child abuse and neglect; trauma

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Time to stable permanence

  Measured by administrative data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS)

  Measured from the date of random assignment to the discharge date or to the end of the study period for cases that did not discharge

• Placement stability

  Measured by administrative data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS)

  Measured at initial study enrollment and at the 8, 14, 20, and 26-month mark of enrollment in the study

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Foster parent skills in responding to youth's emotional and behavioral dysregulation

  completed by study youth at initial study enrollment and at 6 months after baseline data collection

Other Outcomes (14)

• Biological parent ability to regulate their own emotions and behaviors and experience of trauma-related symptoms

  completed by biological parents of study youth at initial study enrollment and at 6 months after baseline data collection

• Biological parent service completion

  Measured at initial study enrollment and at the 8, 14, 20, and 26-month mark of enrollment in the study

• Biological parent contact with youth

  completed by study youth at initial study enrollment and at 6 months after baseline data collection

Study Arms (2)

Treatment

EXPERIMENTAL

Other: Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy (TARGET)

Comparison

NO INTERVENTION

Interventions

Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy (TARGET) OTHER

The intervention is called the Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy (TARGET). TARGET is a manualized, psycho-educational intervention delivered in 10 - 12 sessions. TARGET is designed to address complex trauma and difficulties with emotional regulation and relational engagement that occur across a wide range of trauma-related difficulties, including trauma-related and behavioral symptoms. The full TARGET model consists of learning 7 essential core skills. These skills are called the FREEDOM steps: Focus, Recognize triggers, Emotion self-check, Evaluate thoughts, Define goals, Options, and Make a contribution.

Also known as: TARGET

Treatment

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 11 Years - 16 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• Youth ages 11-16 who are placed in traditional, relative, and specialized foster homes throughout the state of Illinois who, upon reaching the two-year anniversary of entering care, are experiencing mental health symptoms and/or have had at least one placement change.
• If a youth does not exhibit any mental health symptoms as indicated by the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strength (CANS) tool, they need to have at least 3 placement changes to be eligible for the study.

You may not qualify if:

• Youth are ineligible to participate if at the time of eligibility assessment, they are in need of immediate and acute substance abuse treatment, have a Full Scale IQ score below 70, and/or have made recent suicidal threats or plans.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Westat: lead
• Children's Bureau - Administration for Children and Families: collaborator
• Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.: collaborator

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Wounds and Injuries

Interventions

Educational Status; Therapeutics

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Socioeconomic Factors; Population Characteristics

Study Officials

• Andrea Sedlak, PhD.

  Westat

  STUDY DIRECTOR

• Mark Testa, PhD.

  University of North Carolina

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: July 9, 2014
• First Posted: July 17, 2014
• Study Start: September 1, 2014
• Primary Completion: May 1, 2016
• Study Completion: May 1, 2016
• Last Updated: March 26, 2019

Record last verified: 2019-03