Fostering Healthy Futures for Teens: An RCT

NCT03707366 | Active Not Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: DU FHF-T
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 234
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

This study will implement and evaluate a mentoring program designed to promote positive youth development and reduce adverse outcomes among maltreated adolescents with open child welfare cases. Teenagers who have been maltreated are at heightened risk for involvement in delinquency, substance use, and educational failure as a result of disrupted attachments with caregivers and exposure to violence within their homes and communities. Although youth mentoring is a widely used prevention approach nationally, it has not been rigorously studied for its effects in preventing these adverse outcomes among maltreated youth involved in the child welfare system. This randomized controlled trial will permit us to implement and evaluate the Fostering Healthy Futures for Teens (FHF-T) program, which will use mentoring and skills training within an innovative positive youth development (PYD) framework to promote adaptive functioning and prevent adverse outcomes. Graduate student mentors will deliver 9 months of prevention programming in teenagers' homes and communities. Mentors will focus on helping youth set and reach goals that will improve their functioning in five targeted "REACH" domains: Relationships, Education, Activities, Career, and Health. In reaching those goals, mentors will help youth build social-emotional skills associated with preventing adverse outcomes (e.g., emotion regulation, communication, problem solving). The randomized controlled trial will enroll 234 racially and ethnically diverse 8th and 9th grade youth (117 intervention, 117 control), who will provide data at baseline prior to randomization, immediately post-program and 15 months post program follow-up. The aims of the study include testing the efficacy of FHF-T for high-risk 8th and 9th graders in preventing adverse outcomes and examining whether better functioning in positive youth development domains mediates intervention effects. It is hypothesized that youth randomly assigned to the FHF-T prevention condition, relative to youth assigned to the control condition, will evidence better functioning on indices of positive youth development in the REACH domains leading to better long-term outcomes, including adaptive functioning, high school graduation, career attainment/employment, healthy relationships, and quality of life.

Conditions

Child Abuse; Child Neglect; Substance Use; Educational Problems; Adolescent Development; Adolescent Behavior; Sexual Behavior; Child Maltreatment; Risk Behavior; Delinquency; Mental Health Impairment

Keywords

Mentoring; Positive Youth Development; Skills training; Relationships; Child Welfare

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (10)

• Court filings for delinquency immediately post intervention

  Presence of a court filing in administrative records for delinquent behavior

  immediately post-intervention (T2)

• Court filings for delinquency 15 months-post intervention

  Presence of a court filing in administrative records for delinquent behavior

  15-months-post intervention (T3)

• Self-reported delinquency immediately post intervention

  The Adolescent Risk Behavior Survey (ARBS), a youth-report measure that assesses engagement in risk behaviors, will assess any delinquency, number of types of delinquency, any violent delinquency, and any non-violent delinquency

  immediately post-intervention (T2)

• Self-reported delinquency 15 months-post intervention

  The Adolescent Risk Behavior Survey (ARBS), a youth-report measure that assesses engagement in risk behaviors, will assess any delinquency, number of types of delinquency, any violent delinquency, and any non-violent delinquency

  15-months-post intervention (T3)

• School suspensions immediately post intervention

  Any youth reported school suspensions, assessed by the Adolescent Risk Behavior Survey (ARBS), a youth-report measure that assesses engagement in risk behaviors

  immediately post-intervention (T2)

• School suspensions 15 months-post intervention

  Any youth reported school suspensions, assessed by the Adolescent Risk Behavior Survey (ARBS), a youth-report measure that assesses engagement in risk behaviors

  15-months-post intervention (T3)

• Substance use immediately post intervention

  Self-reported number of types and frequency of substance use as assessed by the substance use scale of the Adolescent Risk Behavior Survey (ARBS), a youth-report measure that assesses engagement in risk behaviors

  immediately post-intervention (T2)

• Substance use 15 months-post intervention

  Self-reported number of types and frequency of substance use as assessed by the substance use scale of the Adolescent Risk Behavior Survey (ARBS), a youth-report measure that assesses engagement in risk behaviors

  15-months-post intervention (T3)

• Passing grades immediately post intervention

  Youth report of passing all core academic courses, as assessed via researcher developed educational measure

  immediately post-intervention (T2)

• Passing grades 15 months-post intervention

  Youth report of passing all core academic courses, as assessed via researcher developed educational measure

  15-months-post intervention (T3)

Secondary Outcomes (15)

• Quality of Life

  Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)

• Extracurricular activity involvement

  Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)

• Connectedness to school

  Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)

• Academic achievement

  Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)

• Perceived Opportunities

  Baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 15-months-post intervention (T3)

Study Arms (2)

FHF-T Intervention Group

EXPERIMENTAL

9 months of 1:1 youth mentoring by graduate-student mentors; workshops; educational advocacy

Behavioral: FHF-T

Control group

NO INTERVENTION

Services as usual

Interventions

FHF-T BEHAVIORAL

FHF-T employs mentoring, consisting of relationship development, advocating for and empowering youth, and skill-building activities to promote positive youth development. Mentors meet individually for 2-3 hours per week for 30 weeks with each teen they mentor, in order to engage teens in positive youth development activities and provide skills training in areas including emotion recognition, perspective-taking, problem solving, effective communication, managing anger, healthy coping and resisting peer pressure for deviant activities. Youth also attend group workshops over the course of the program, in which they engage with other participants and mentors in skill-building activities.

FHF-T Intervention Group

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 13 Years - 16 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• Teens with open child welfare cases placed in foster care, kinship care or living at home
• Starting 8th or 9th grade
• History of child maltreatment according to child welfare and court records
• Live within 35 minutes of the University of Denver (for mentoring feasibility)

You may not qualify if:

• Youth with a known history of severe violent behavior and/or sexual perpetration
• Youth who are deemed unsafe or unable to participate in a community-based mentoring program by their caseworker
• Incarcerated at baseline
• Moderate or severe developmental delay or physical disability
• Youth who are/will be parenting during the prevention program

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Denver: lead

Study Sites (1)

University of Denver

Denver, Colorado, 80208, United States

Location

Related Publications (3)

• Taussig H, Weiler L, Rhodes T, Hambrick E, Wertheimer R, Fireman O, Combs M. Fostering Healthy Futures for Teens: Adaptation of an Evidence-Based Program. J Soc Social Work Res. 2015 Dec;6(4):617-642. doi: 10.1086/684021.

  PMID: 27019678 BACKGROUND

• Taussig, H.N., Bender, K., Bennett, R. Massey Combs, K., Fireman, O, & Wertheimer, R. (2020). Mentoring for teens with child welfare involvement: Permanency outcomes from a randomized controlled trial of the Fostering Healthy Futures for Teens program. Child Welfare, 97(5), 1-24.

  RESULT

• Taussig, H., Bender, K., Racz, S. & Evidence Based Policy Team, A. V. (2022, April 7). Fostering Healthy Futures for Teens. Retrieved from osf.io/673eu.

  RESULT

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Risk-Taking; Substance-Related Disorders; Adolescent Behavior; Sexual Behavior

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Behavior; Chemically-Induced Disorders; Mental Disorders

Study Officials

• Heather Taussig, PhD

  University of Denver

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

• Kimberly Bender, PhD

  University of Denver

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Masking Details: Research assistants who conduct the interviews are masked to condition.
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Professor and Associate Dean for Research

Model Details: Randomized controlled trial with 2 groups

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: May 23, 2017
• First Posted: October 16, 2018
• Study Start: June 1, 2015
• Primary Completion: December 31, 2021
• Study Completion (Estimated): September 1, 2044
• Last Updated: April 29, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-04

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, ANALYTIC CODE

Locations

US (1)