An Intervention for Antisocial Gang-Affiliated Youth

University Of Southern California, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Five years of funding are being requested through the Mentored Career Development Award (K08) program to provide the applicant with skills to establish a program of research focusing on reducing violence and antisocial behavior among gang-affiliated juvenile offenders. A primary goal is to modify the Behavioral Employment Intervention Program (BEIP) for use with gang-affiliated offenders who are predominantly Latino and African American. The award will permit the applicant to build on a strong foundation of research and clinical experience focusing on evidence-based treatments for children and families and effective treatments for ethnic minority youth. The proposed training plan would provide instruction and mentoring in (1) how aspects of Latino culture influence mental health functioning and service use, (2) youth gang) processes that may affect behavioral, mental health, and employment outcomes, (3) methods for modifying and implementing evidence-based interventions, and (4) data analytic techniques for use in evaluating the results of controlled clinical trials. The research plan for this award will occur in two phases and will utilize the training activities supported by this award. First, BEIP will be modified for gang-affiliated offenders, operationalized in the form of a treatment manual, and implemented with a pilot sample of 5-10 gang-affiliated youth in Los Angeles. Second, a pilot efficacy trial will be conducted comparing Modified BElP to Services as Usual with a larger sample (n = 30) of gang-affiliated youth offenders. The data collected from this research plan will form the basis for a future R01 grant submission to conduct a larger scale clinical trial that tests the effectiveness of the Modified BElT intervention. [unreadable] [unreadable]