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Completed

NCT Number: NCT05185453

Strengthening Adolescent-Adult Networks to Reduce Youth Violence

This pilot community-partnered cluster-randomized trial will examine the feasibility and acceptability of a social network-based youth violence prevention program called Strengthening Connections for Change for youth ages 13-17 and their key adult supports.

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Key information

Age range

13 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15213, United States

About this study

This pilot community-partnered cluster-randomized trial will examine the feasibility and acceptability of a social network-based youth violence prevention program called Strengthening Connections for Change for youth ages 13-17 and their key adult supports. Set in four lower resource Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania neighborhoods, this study brings together youth ages 13-17 and their self-identified key adult supports to focus on leadership, strengthening intergenerational networks, community engagement, and violence prevention.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

Youth:

  • Participants must be ages 13-17 (inclusive)
  • Participants must speak English

Adults

  • Participants must be ages 18 or older
  • Participants must speak English

Exclusion criteria

Youth:

  • Not ages 13-17 (inclusive)
  • Do not speak English

Adults

  • Less than 18 years of age
  • Do not speak English

Treatment and study plan

Strengthening Connections for Change

Behavioral

Strengthening Connections for Change is a 12-session curriculum designed to strengthen adolescent-adult support networks, build leadership skills, foster community engagement, and challenge attitudes and behaviors that foster violence involvement. During the program, youth ages 13-17 years invite their self-identified key adult supports to jointly participate in programming including youth-focused, adult-focused and jointly focused activities. Towards the end of programming participants design and carry out a community project to strengthen intergenerational connections and promote community engagement.

Job Readiness Training

Behavioral

Job Readiness Training uses a group discussion format to learn specific skills to prepare for employment including developing goals, seeking jobs, preparing for interviews, and so forth.

Primary outcomes

  1. Participant Attendance

    Time frame: through intervention completion, 12 weeks

    Attendance recorded at beginning and end of each session. Calculated as a proportion of total number of sessions attended (possible session attended #: 0-12 for youth participants and 0-9 for adult participants) using the following method (# youth at session 1 + # youth at session 2 + …)/(# of youth participants x12 sessions) and (# adults at session 1 + # adults at session 2 + …)/(# of adult participants x9 sessions). The possible proportion attended ranges from 0-1.

  2. Participant Overall Satisfaction With Curriculum Content and Format Assessed by Researcher-generated Likert-scale Items

    Time frame: end of program (12 weeks)

    At the end of the program, participants will be asked about how satisfied they were overall with the topics discussed and format of the program using 5-point Likert scale items. Means score will be calculated across the items (possible range: 1-5; higher score means higher satisfaction). This data was collected for the Strengthening Connections for change intervention groups only.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Participant Satisfaction With Weekly Session Content Assessed by Researcher-generated Likert-scale Items

    Time frame: end of program (12 weeks)

    At the end of each of the 12 sessions, participants will be asked about how satisfied they were with the topics discussed for that session using 5-point Likert scale items. A mean score will be calculated by taking the average of the responses on session forms completed by each youth across all time points (i.e., Session 1 Mean Score + Session 2 Mean Score + Session 3 Mean score +.../ 12 sessions) (possible range: 1-5; higher score means higher satisfaction). This data was collected for the Strengthening Connections for change intervention groups only.

Other outcomes

  1. Change in Social Network Composition

    Time frame: Baseline, end of program (12 weeks)

    Participants will complete an abbreviated social network survey that asks them to identify key sources of emotional and instrumental support, and to characterize the nature of these relationships (network size, network density, mean link strength).

  2. Change in Violence Perpetration

    Time frame: Baseline, end of program (12 weeks)

    Summary score of past 30-day youth violence perpetration adapted from the Aggressive Behavior--SAGE Baseline survey (9 items, each measured on a 5-point frequency scale from 0 times to 7 or more times). Violence perpetration items will be added to create a summary violence perpetration score with 1 point for each response of at least 1 time (possible range: 0-9; lower score indicates better outcome).

  3. Change in Violence Victimization

    Time frame: Baseline, end of program (12 weeks)

    Summary score of past 30-day youth violence victimization adapted from the Victimization--Problem Behavior Frequency Scale (9 items, each measured on a 5-point frequency scale from 0 times to 7 or more times). Violence victimization items will be added to create a summary violence victimization score with 1 point for each response of at least 1 time (possible range: 0-9; lower score indicates better outcome).

  4. Change in Attitudes Towards Violence

    Time frame: Baseline, end of program (12 weeks)

    Modified from the Children's Perception of Environmental Violence Scale, 6 items assessed on 5-point Likert scale, calculated as a mean score (possible range 1-5; lower score indicates better outcome).

  5. Change in Coping

    Time frame: Baseline, end of program (12 weeks)

    Modified from the Healthy Pathways Child-Report Scales: Active Coping Scale, 7 items assessed on 5-point Likert scale, calculated as a mean score (possible range 1-5; higher score indicates better outcome).

  6. Change in Future Orientation

    Time frame: Baseline, end of program (12 weeks)

    Modified from the California Healthy Kids Survey, 7 items assessed on 5-point Likert scale, calculated as a mean score (possible range 1-5; higher score indicates better outcome).

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

University of Pittsburgh

Other

Collaborators

  • Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
  • National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Registry information

Important dates

Study start
2022
Primary completion
2023
Study completion
2023
First posted
Jan 11, 2022
Registry last updated
Aug 23, 2024

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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