COMPARISION OF COMMUNITY BASED MODELS FOR YOUTH OFFENDER

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This application requests funding to evaluate the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of a cognitive treatment approach and a correctional approach with substance abusing juveniles involved in the County Youth Court System of Mississippi and to compare their outcome against regular probation as the control condition. Three hundred (300) substance abusing adolescents will be recruited for participation as they enter three county youth courts. Assignment to groups will be based upon which county Youth Court the adolescent is brought before, i.e. all eligible youth entering Madison County Youth Court will be assigned to the control group. All eligible youth entering Forrest County Youth Court will be placed in Intensive Outpatient Counseling plus Cognitive Training (IOC + CT) condition. All eligible youth entering Lowndes County Youth Court will be placed in Intensive Supervision and Monitoring condition. Before intervention and at 6, 12 and 18 months post intervention, all subjects will be assessed using Personal Experience Screening Questionnaire (PESQ), an adolescent substance use screening tool, the Million Adolescent Personality Inventory (MAPI) and a modified TASC form 86, which documents self reported antisocial, illegal and prosocial behavior, such as school attendance and employment, over a 6 month period. Repeated measures MANOVAs will compare the experimental conditions using a 3 (Condition) by 4 (Time) factoral design. If the overall MANOVA is significant, univariate ANOVAs and Tukey cost hoc tests will identify the specific variables for which change is present and clarify the pattern of changes. Recidivism will be evaluated using logistic regression analyses. Cost effectiveness of each model will be evaluated via cost plus participants relative to the outcome benefit produced. It is hypothesized that there will be reductions in recidivism and substance use in both experimental groups, but that IOC+CT will produce the best overall outcomes due to the combination of the structured cognitive training, individualized treatment and parent/guardian involvement in treatment. Secondary analysis will evaluate whether there are differences in outcome as a function of subject characteristics. The results will be useful to state and local administrators of juvenile justice programs in planning community based alternatives to institutionalization for substance abusing adolescents.