Randomized Controlled Trial of Big Brothers Big Sisters Mentoring for Prevention of Crime and Delinquency

University of Illinois at Chicago1,361 enrolled

Overview

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) community-based mentoring (CBM) program for prevention of crime and delinquency/conduct problems, including risk and protective factors for these outcomes. Participants will be recruited from 16 BBBSA affiliates, which are located in different regions of the U.S. and were invited to serve as sites for the study using a random selection process. The study sample will consist of approximately 2,500 youth ages 10-16 whose parents seek services from one of the participating BBBSA affiliates during the study enrollment period and for whom consent/assent to participate in the research is obtained. Enrolled youth will be randomly assigned to participate in the CBM program (treatment group) or to a control group (no BBBSA programming during the youth's 4-year period of study participation). Youth will be assigned in a 3:1 ratio to the treatment and control groups. Youth and parents will complete survey measures both at study enrollment, prior to notification of assignment to control or treatment group, and 18 months later. Official records of police/court contact (e.g., arrests), with separate parent/guardian consent as provided at study enrollment, will be obtained both for the period preceding each youth's enrollment in the study and for a 4-year period following enrollment. The study has 4 specific aims: 1. To determine the effects of participation in the Big Brothers Big Sisters CBM program on youth offending as measured by police/court records, i.e., person offense, property offense, drug law violation, public order offense, or status offense. 2. To determine the effects of participation in the BBBS CBM program on the likelihood of youths' involvement in delinquent behavior/conduct problems as assessed by youth and parent reports. 3. To determine the effects of BBBS CBM program participation on the likelihood of youths' involvement in substance use as assessed by self-reports of alcohol use to point of drunkenness, tobacco, or illicit drug use. 4. To determine the effects of BBBS CBM program participation on both risk and protective factors for delinquent/criminal behavior, such as aggression, depressive symptoms, association with deviant peers, self-control, and school connectedness, as assessed by youth and/or parent reports, and to explore the role of these effects in mediating effects of program participation on offending, delinquent behavior, and substance use.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 10 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion criteria: * youth is 10 years of age or older * youth is likely to be eligible for the Big Brothers Big Sisters Community-Based Mentoring program as determined by initial assessment of program staff Exclusion criteria: * youth has a severe learning, cognitive or other intellectual disability as reported by the parent * parent does not both speak and read either English or Spanish * youth does not have a sibling who is already a study participant * youth has been matched with a Big Brother/Sister through one of the affiliate's programs in the past * youth has a sibling currently receiving services from the affiliate for whom services were initiated (i.e., inquiry was made) prior to start of the study * youth belongs to a group that the affiliate is excluding from study participation based on previous agreement with the research team * youth is designated as an exception case by affiliate staff (each affiliate will have the opportunity to exclude up to 4% of study-eligible youth from the research prior to consent and random assignment for any reason deemed appropriate (e.g., perceived high need of the youth))

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Arrest

0/1 indicator based on official police/court/juvenile office records of any of the following types of offenses-person offense, property offense, drug law violation, public order offense, or status offense

Time frame: 4 years

Arrest

Time frame: 18 months

Delinquency

0/1 indicator based on youth and parent report using 13 items from the Add Health Study (Bearman et al., 1997)

Time frame: 18 months

Substance use

0/1 indicator based on youth report of alcohol use to point of drunkenness, tobacco, or illicit drug use

Time frame: 18 months

Secondary Outcomes

Truancy

3-item youth-report measure (2 items from Herrera et al., 2013)

Time frame: 18 months

Association with deviant peers

A single measure computed as the average of scores on continuous youth-report measure (Elliott et al., 1996) and one-item (0/1) parent-report indicator from Youth Risk Index (Herrera et al., 2013) after each score has been standardized to mean of 0 and standard deviation of 1.

Time frame: 18 months

School suspensions

One-item (0/1) parent-report indicator from Youth Risk Index (Herrera et al., 2013)

Time frame: 18 months

Depressive symptoms

Depressive Symptoms Pediatric Self-Report - Short Form from the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) (Irwin et al., 2010). Lower scores indicate a better outcome

Time frame: 18 months

Impulsivity

A single measure computed as the average of scores on continuous youth- and parent-report scales (Hay \& Meldrum, 2010) after each score has been standardized to mean of 0 and standard deviation of 1.

Time frame: 18 months

Conventional values

Belief in the Moral Order scale of the Communities That Care Youth Survey (Arthur et al., 2002)

Time frame: 18 months

Aggressive behavior

A single measure computed as the average of scores on youth-report Aggression Scale (Orpinas \& Frankowski, 2001) and parent-report Parent's Checklist from the Fast Track Project: https://fasttrackproject.org/techrept/p/pcl/ after each score has been standardized to mean of 0 and standard deviation of 1.

Time frame: 18 months

Academic success

4-item measure of grades in core subjects (Herrera et al., 2013)

Time frame: 18 months

Positive parenting

Parent-report Positive Parenting subscale from the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (Essau et al., 2006)

Time frame: 18 months

Parent involvement

Parent-report Involvement subscale from the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (Essau et al., 2006)

Time frame: 18 months

Parental monitoring and supervision

Parent-report Poor Monitoring/Supervision subscale from the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (Essau et al., 2006)

Time frame: 18 months

Parental consistent discipline

Parent-report Inconsistent Discipline subscale from the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (Essau et al., 2006)

Time frame: 18 months

Family relationships

Parent-report General Functioning scale of the Family Assessment Device (Epstein et al., 1983)

Time frame: 18 months

Perceived social support from family members

Youth-report Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet et al., 1988): Family Members subscale

Time frame: 18 months

Perceived social support from peers

Youth-report Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet et al., 1988): Peers subscale

Time frame: 18 months

Perceived social support from special person

Youth-report Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet et al., 1988): Significant Others subscale

Time frame: 18 months

School engagement

Youth-report Behavioral Engagement subscale of the Engagement versus Disaffection with Learning Scale (Skinner et al., 2009)

Time frame: 18 months

Goal-setting and pursuit

Parent-report Goal Orientation scale from Child Trends: https://www.childtrends.org/research/research-by-topic/positive-indicators-project/goal-orientation/

Time frame: 18 months

Involvement in out-of-school-time activities

Parent-report (Herrera et al., 2007)

Time frame: 18 months

Volunteering in the community

Youth-report single-item (Herrera et al., 2013)

Time frame: 18 months

Life satisfaction

Youth-report single-item measure from WHO's 2005-06 Health Behaviors in School Age Children Survey: http://filer.uib.no/psyfa/HEMIL-senteret/HBSC/2006\_Mandatory\_Questionnaire.pdf

Time frame: 18 months

Self-esteem

Youth-report Global Self-Esteem subscale of brief version of the Self-Esteem Questionnaire (DuBois et al., 1996; Silverthorn et al., 2017)

Time frame: 18 months

Happiness

Youth-report Positive Affect Pediatric Self-Report - Short Form from the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) (Forrest et al., 2017)

Time frame: 18 months

Grit

Youth-report Grit Scale for Children (Duckworth \& Quinn, 2009)

Time frame: 18 months

Social competence

Social Competencies Scale of the Youth Outcome Measures Online Toolbox (Muris, 2001)

Time frame: 18 months

Special interest development

Youth-report (adapted from DuBois \& Keller, 2017)

Time frame: 18 months

Hopeful future expectations

Youth-report abbreviated version of the Hopeful Future Expectations Scale (Bowers et al., 2012)

Time frame: 18 months

Career exploration

Youth-report 2 items (adapted from Herrera et al., 2011)

Time frame: 18 months

College exploration

Youth-report 1 item (adapted from Herrera et al., 2011)

Time frame: 18 months

Self-advocacy

Youth-report (Jarjoura et al., 2017)

Time frame: 18 months

Coping efficacy

Youth-report 1 item adapted from Coping Efficacy Scale (Sandler et al., 2000)

Time frame: 18 months

Randomized Controlled Trial of Big Brothers Big Sisters Mentoring for Prevention of Crime and Delinquency

Overview

Conditions

Interventions

Eligibility

Locations (1)

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes