The Youth Initiated Mentoring Approach for Juvenile Delinquents

NCT05555472 | Unknown

• 1 other identifier: ZonMw #744130101
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 300
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Natural or informal mentorship could potentially be considered effective in preventing or reducing delinquent behaviour. In the Youth Initiated Mentoring (YIM) approach, youths are supported by professionals in identifying and nominating a natural mentor within their own social network. The approach focuses on strengthening these naturally existing relationships with non-parental adults. Until now, little (quasi-)experimental research is conducted on the YIM approach. In the Netherlands, juvenile offenders between 12-18 years are referred to Halt, where they are required to follow a tailored intervention with the aim of preventing reoffending and increasing youths' future opportunities. Since 2019, the YIM approach is implemented as part of the Halt-intervention. The researchers will examine whether the YIM approach is an effective addition to the Halt-intervention. More specifically, whether it contributes to (1) strengthening youths' resilience, (2) decreasing or halting the need for formal support, and (3) decreasing or halting the development of juvenile delinquency. This quasi-experimental trial aims to include 300 youths referred to Halt. Youths will be non-randomly allocated to either a YIM trained Halt professional (N = 31), or a Halt professional not trained in the YIM approach (N = 31). These professionals will implement the Halt-plus-YIM-condition (N =150) or the care-as-usual Halt-condition (N = 150), respectively. Random allocation of youth cases to Halt professionals was not possible because Halt's distribution office considers individuals' workload. Despite non-random allocation, conditions will be comparable in terms of (1) the professionals who deliver the intervention (i.e., same educational level and from the same region), and (2) case type and severity (i.e., allocation is independent of type of offense and its severity as well as the evaluation of number of risk factors present in youth). Researchers will perform a multi-informant measurement strategy. Youths are our primary informants, but parents of youths are also approached to participate. Youth and parent questionnaires related to several youth and family outcomes will be administered at baseline, 100 days after baseline (post-test), and nine months after baseline (follow-up). Researchers will also collect information registered by Halt professionals in Halt's registration system. Read detailed description for more information on outcomes.

Conditions

Juvenile Delinquency; Youth Initiated Mentoring (YIM) Approach

Keywords

Natural mentoring; Youth Initiated Mentoring; Delinquency; Juvenile; Adolescents; Prevention; Reoffending

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Perceived Social Support

  Informant: Youth. As measured by the Berlin Social Support Scales (BSSS; Schwarzer \& Schulz, 2000): subscale perceived social support. Factor contributing to youth resilience.

  Change from baseline at 100 days (post-test)

• Social Resourcefulness

  Informant: Youth. As measured by the BSSS (Schwarzer \& Schulz, 2000): subscale support seeking. Factor contributing to youth resilience.

  Change from baseline at 100 days (post-test)

Secondary Outcomes (4)

• Need for (formal) support

  Change from baseline at 100 days (post-test)

• Need for (formal) support

  Change from baseline at 9 months (follow-up)

• Self-reported delinquency

  Change from baseline at 100 days (post-test)

• Self-reported delinquency

  Change from baseline at 9 months (follow-up)

Other Outcomes (47)

• Perceived Social Support

  Change from baseline at 9 months (follow-up)

• Perceived Mattering

  Change from baseline at 100 days (post-test)

• Perceived Mattering

  Change from baseline at 9 months (follow-up)

Study Arms (2)

Care-as-usual Halt-condition

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Participants in this arm will follow the regular Halt-intervention. Halt professionals, not trained in YIM-approach, will be instructed to follow their regular working procedure. On average, the intervention consists of 3 meetings: an initial meeting, an intervention meeting, and a closing meeting. The aim is to complete the intervention within 100 days (min.-max.: 1-6 meetings, 1-20 hours). During the initial meeting, compulsory activities are screening and risk assessment, reflection on the committed offense/crime, and parental involvement. Based on these activities, the duration and the content of the intervention are determined. Professionals can select activities from 5 different modules: (1) reflection on behaviour, (2) parental involvement, (3) social skills training, (4) victim-offender reconciliation, and (5) future. A form of victim-offender reconciliation, however, is compulsory. Professionals are required to register relevant information regarding the Halt-process.

Behavioral: Halt-intervention

Halt-plus-YIM-condition

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in this arm will follow the Halt-plus-YIM-intervention. YIM trained Halt professionals implement the YIM approach in their regular working procedure in 7 steps: (1) during risk assessment, they support youth in identifying a YIM; (2) during the course of the study, professionals will be instructed to motivate and explain the YIM approach in cases with 3 or more meetings; (3) if a YIM is nominated, a meeting between the professional and the YIM takes place; (4) to 'position' the YIM, a joint meeting is arranged to discuss expectations/goals of all involved parties; (5) interim contact between professional and YIM takes place; (6) a joint evaluative meeting takes place; (7) if agreed upon, closure of Halt's engagement takes place. Note, the YIM often remains involved after this completion. Professionals register on the Halt- and YIM-process and whether the approach was deployed: 'NO' (i.e., only step 1), 'PARTLY' (i.e., steps 1 and 2) or 'YES' (i.e., at least step 3 or 4).

Behavioral: Halt-intervention; Behavioral: Youth Initiated Mentoring (YIM) approach

Interventions

Halt-intervention BEHAVIORAL

The main aim of the Halt-intervention is to reduce the risk for reoffending. Seven sub-goals are implemented to work towards this main aim: (1) youths gain insight in (the consequences of) their behaviour; (2) strengthening youths' social skills; (3) youths are able take responsibility for the consequences of their behaviour; (4) victim-offender reconciliation; (5) youths are able to access support from own social network and, if necessary, access to formal support; (6) parents gain insight their child's behaviour; and (7) if youths complete the intervention, they do not receive a registration on their criminal record. With a compulsory screening and risk assessment at the start of the intervention, it is determined which sub-goals fit the adolescents' needs. The intervention gives Halt professionals the opportunity to identify adolescents (and families) in vulnerable circumstances and to guide them towards formal support, like youth care organisations or addiction treatment centres.

Care-as-usual Halt-condition; Halt-plus-YIM-condition

Youth Initiated Mentoring (YIM) approach BEHAVIORAL

The YIM approach focuses on strengthening naturally existing relationships between youth and non-parental adults within their own social network (Van Dam \& Schwartz, 2020). It stems from the idea "it takes a village to raise a child (Educational Civil Society)", which implies that other adults are co-responsible for the development of youth in their environment (Bowers et al., 2015). The YIM approach can be implemented in a formal context; expertise from the own social network is then combined with expertise from professionals (Van Dam \& Verhulst, 2018). Professionals support youth in identifying and positioning a "YIM" as part of a broader intervention (Van Dam \& Schwartz, 2020). Youths are responsible for asking their YIM and once agreed upon, the YIM is "positioned". The YIM offers advice/support and plays a role during the intervention followed by the youth. Youth, parents, YIMs and professionals work together to set expectations and goals for the engagement of the YIM.

Halt-plus-YIM-condition

Eligibility Criteria

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

You may qualify if:

• (First) offenders between 12 and 18 years
• Referred to Halt by the police, prosecutor, special investigating officer, or a school attendance officer after committing an offense or crime
• Three or more meetings with the Halt professional

You may not qualify if:

• In both conditions "shortened cases" (i.e., cases with less than 3 meeting) will be excluded. In both conditions, Halt professionals are instructed to follow their regular working process. In the experimental condition, however, YIM trained professionals will be instructed to motivate and explain the YIM for cases with 3 or more meetings. Because motivation and explanation of the YIM approach are usually performed during a follow-up meeting, it will not be possible to motivate and deploy the YIM approach in shortened cases. Therefore, in both conditions, these cases will be excluded from the study.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Amsterdam: lead
• ZonMw: The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development: collaborator
• YIM Foundation Netherlands (JIMwerkt.nl): collaborator
• Halt (Halt.nl): collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Halt

Utrecht, 3527 GV, Netherlands

RECRUITING

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Study Officials

• Levi Van Dam, Dr.

  University of Amsterdam

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

• Geertjan J Overbeek, Prof. Dr.

  University of Amsterdam

  STUDY DIRECTOR

Central Study Contacts

Angelique Boering, MSc.

CONTACT

+31 (6) 4361176; a.boering@uva.nl

Annabeth P Groenman, Dr.

CONTACT

a.p.groenman@uva.nl

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Masking Details: Participants are aware of following the Halt-intervention (with a YIM) but they are not aware of the existence of the other condition. Adolescents in the CAU Halt-condition are not aware of participants following the Halt-YIM condition (and possibly not aware of the YIM approach itself) and vice versa. The care providers, YIM trained and non-trained professionals, can only include participants for either the experimental or control condition respectively. Whether the adolescent is a participant, only becomes known if the professional explicitly asks the adolescent. After their invitation, adolescents are redirected to give their consent. Actual registration of participants is registered by the researchers. Researchers do not actively communicate which adolescents have registered for the study. Both the investigator and outcomes assessor are aware of which participant is in which condition but are not directly involved with the participants nor the procedure in the conditions.
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Study Principal Investigator

Model Details: Youths will be non-randomly allocated to either a YIM trained Halt professional (N = 31), or a Halt professional not trained in the YIM approach (N = 31). These professionals will implement the Halt-plus-YIM-condition (N =150) or the CAU Halt-condition (N = 150), respectively. Random allocation of cases to Halt professionals was not possible because Halt's distribution office considers individuals' workload. Despite non-random allocation, conditions will be comparable in terms of (1) the professionals who deliver the intervention (i.e., same educational level and from the same region), and (2) case type and severity. Allocation of a youths' case to a professional, is independent of type of offense and its severity as well as the evaluation of number of risk factors present in youth. In addition, due to the equal number of professionals per region, similar distributions of youths per region are expected.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: September 7, 2022
• First Posted: September 27, 2022
• Study Start: September 13, 2022
• Primary Completion: February 1, 2024
• Study Completion: August 1, 2024
• Last Updated: September 27, 2022

Record last verified: 2022-09

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, ICF
• Time Frame: Data will be made available on embargo, three months after the end of the project. This embargo allows researchers to complete ongoing reports on the data, and to take the initiative to develop new publication plans on the project data.
• Access Criteria: Via UvA Figshare data can be stored and shared on request. Requests are considered by the study officials. Together they will decide whether anonymised data can be shared with a third party. Files will receive a DOI number, which can be used in articles and presentations.

Locations

NL (1)