Evaluation of Violence Prevention Strategies to Prevent and Reduce Community Levels of Youth Violence

Official title

VCU Healthy Communities for Youth: Evaluation of Violence Prevention Strategies to Prevent and Reduce Community Levels of Youth Violence

Overview

The goal of this research study is to implement and evaluate a comprehensive community-level approach, Healthy Communities for Youth, that includes both a selective hospital-based prevention strategy, Emerging Leaders, and universal prevention strategies that increase Positive Youth Development opportunities through participatory action research, stakeholder education, community mobilization, and an overall focus on increasing community capacity for prevention. Key project aims are to evaluate the impact of Healthy Communities for Youth on community rates of youth violence using surveillance data and evaluate the impact of each violence prevention strategy on proximal outcomes including their impact on risk factors and protective processes related to multiple forms of youth violence.

Detailed description

This project focuses on three communities in Richmond selected based on US Census Bureau block groups and their high rates of youth violence and concentrated poverty. The community-level effects of implementing the comprehensive community-level approach will be evaluated using a multiple baseline design. The three communities were randomly assigned such that the intervention would begin in one community starting in the fourth quarter of Year 1, a second community in the fourth quarter of Year 2, and the third community will represent a no-intervention control community receiving training and technical assistance at the end of the project. Analyses will be conducted on community-level surveillance data on violence-related variables to determine if the introduction of the community-level intervention within each community is associated with subsequent changes in outcome measures.

Interventions

• Behavioral PAR - the SEED Method
  The SEED Method is an evidence-based Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach that engages youth and adult stakeholders in collective decision-making and action in supporting PYD opportunities in their communities.
• Behavioral PAR-Youth Voices
  Youth Voices is a developmentally appropriate and culturally responsive PAR approach designed for African American adolescents. The curriculum relies on frameworks including sociopolitical development (e.g., civic engagement and social justice), racial socialization, and racial identity development. Youth Voices will be implemented in high schools serving the intervention communities.
• Behavioral Emerging Leaders hospital-based intervention
  Emerging Leaders is a violence prevention strategy that provides evidence-based intervention and resources for high-risk youth and their families in the youth's home and community. Emerging Leaders consists of four core components to prevent violence: (1) brief hospital-based violence intervention, (2) 3-months of community case management, (3) an in-home firearm safety counseling program, and (4) an 8-week youth positive development workshop series.

Primary outcome measures

• Reactive-Proactive Aggression Questionnaire (RPQ) [Time frame: Baseline and 6 months after baseline]
• Beliefs About Aggression and Alternatives (BAA) [Time frame: Baseline and 6 months after baseline]
• Firearm Aggression Questionnaire (FAQ) [Time frame: Baseline and 6 months after baseline]
• Gun Violence Questionnaire (GVQ) [Time frame: Baseline and 6 months after baseline]
• Peer Pressure for Fighting (PPF) [Time frame: Baseline and 6 months after baseline]
• Youth Dating Violence Questionnaire (YDVQ) [Time frame: Baseline and 6 months after baseline]
• Engagement in Community Advocacy [Time frame: Baseline and 17 weeks later]
• Orientation to Community Advocacy [Time frame: Baseline and 17 weeks later]
• Emotional Motivation to Engage in Community Advocacy [Time frame: Baseline and 17 weeks later]
• Civic Engagement [Time frame: Baseline and 17 weeks later]

Secondary outcome measures (10)

• Developmental Assets Profile (DAP) [Time frame: Baseline and 6 months after baseline]
• Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC) [Time frame: Baseline and 6 months after baseline]
• Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) [Time frame: Baseline and 6 months after baseline]
• Research skills & Orientation Toward Research [Time frame: Baseline and 17 weeks after baseline]
• Leadership Skills [Time frame: Baseline and 17 weeks after baseline]
• Orientation Toward Leadership [Time frame: Baseline and 17 weeks after baseline]
• Ethnic-Racial Identity [Time frame: Baseline and 17 weeks after baseline]
• Social and Emotional Skills [Time frame: Baseline and 17 weeks after baseline]
• Involvement in Youth Oriented Activities [Time frame: Baseline and 17 weeks after baseline]
• Satisfaction & Experiences in the Youth Voices Program [Time frame: Baseline and 17 weeks after baseline]

Eligibility criteria

PAR-SEED Method:

Inclusion criteria

• Community residents, youth aged 12-17 and parents, living in one of the intervention communities (Community A and Community B)
• Stakeholders who reside or work in one of the intervention communities (Community A and Community B) or who contribute other expertise
• Be able to consent/assent

Exlcusion criteria:

• Those who do not meet the inclusion criteria
• Those with limited English proficiency

Emerging Leaders:

Inclusion criteria

• Violently injured or high-risk youth that have either received or are receiving treatment or had a family member or relative receive treatment at VCU Health, or who live in one of the intervention communities, or have been referred by a community partner.
• Aged 14 through 24
• Reside in one of the two intervention communities (Community A and Community B) or in the control community (Community C)
• Be able to consent/assent

Exclusion criteria

• Youth younger than 14 and older than 24 will be excluded.
• Prisoners will be excluded.
• Those living outside our community boundaries will be excluded.

PAR/Youth Voices:

Inclusion criteria

• Youth in grades 9 through 12
• Reside in one of the intervention communities (Community A and Community B) and attend the designated high school(s) serving that community (Community A or Community B)
• Be able to consent/assent

Exclusion criteria

• Youth in grades below 9th
• Youth who have graduated from high school
• Youth recruited for School A, cannot reside in the catchment areas for Communities B or C. Youth recruited for School B, cannot reside in the catchment areas for Communities A or C. Youth recruited for School C, cannot reside in the catchment areas for Communities A or B.

Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.

Healthy volunteers: No

Study design

Allocation

Randomized

Model

Sequential

Masking

Open label

Primary purpose

Other

Study locations

United States · 1 center

• Virginia Commonwealth University — Richmond

Identifiers

NCT: NCT06176300 · HM20023324 · 5U01CE003379

Primary sources (government registries)

• ClinicalTrials.gov (US NIH)

View this study on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗