Trauma-Focused Interventions for Justice-Involved and At-Risk Youth: A Meta-Analysis, 1980-2015 (ICPSR 37439)

Version Date: Jan 30, 2020

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Principal Investigator(s):
David B. Wilson, George Mason University; Ajima Olaghere, Temple University; Catherine S. Kimbrell, George Mason University

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37439.v1

Version V1

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Summary

The objective of the Trauma-Focused Interventions for Justice-Involved and At-Risk Youth meta-analysis was to systematically review and statistically synthesize all available research on the effectiveness of trauma-informed treatment programs for justice-involved youth and youth at-risk of justice system involvement who experienced some form of trauma in their lives. A systematic search identified 29 publications that met the eligibility criteria and represented 30 treatment-comparison contrasts. Of these studies, 6 evaluated the effectiveness of trauma-informed programs for justice-involved youth, and the remaining 24 evaluated programs for at-risk children and youth. From these studies, researchers extracted results related to delinquency, problem behaviors, aggression, antisocial behavior, substance use, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) outcomes. Most of these studies (24) used random assignment to conditions designs, with the remaining 6 using a quasi experimental design with a comparison condition.

Variables in this collection include type of publication, authors, country of study, type of primary study design, publication year, youth type (at-risk or delinquent), frequency and duration of treatment, treatment techniques and types of therapy, treatment and control group sample sizes, as well as variables summarizing respondent histories of abuse, neglect, trauma, violence, delinquency, institutionalization, homelessness, and involvement in foster care. Demographic information on primary study respondents includes overall sample, treatment, and control group percentage breakdowns by ethnicity and respondent age summary statistics.

Citation

Wilson, David B., Olaghere, Ajima, and Kimbrell, Catherine S. Trauma-Focused Interventions for Justice-Involved and At-Risk Youth: A Meta-Analysis, 1980-2015. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2020-01-30. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37439.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (2016-MU-MU-0065)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

Country

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

1980 -- 2012 (original data collection), 1996 -- 2015 (publication years)

Date of Collection

2017-09 -- 2018-06
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Study Purpose

The purpose the study is to help identify effective trauma-informed treatments and treatment features that are useful both within the juvenile justice context and to prevent involvement in the justice system for youth at-risk prolonged exposure to trauma.

Study Design

The search strategy attempted to systematically identify all eligible studies that have been conducted, whether formally published or not. A total of 24 electronic databases were searched. Researchers also scanned the reference lists from numerous related prior reviews. A total of 9,102 titles were identified through this process and screened. After removing obviously irrelevant titles, 501 references remained and were screened against the eligibility criteria, producing 37 eligible references which were further distilled to 29 unique research studies.

Two types of studies met the eligibility criteria: (1) Evaluations of trauma-informed treatments for youth already involved in the juvenile justice system, and (2) evaluations of trauma-informed treatments for at-risk youth not already involved in the juvenile justice system (or not clearly identified as such), but that included delinquency as an outcome or an outcome highly predictive of later delinquency such as externalizing behaviors, aggression, antisocial behavior, substance use, etc. Both experimental (random assignment) and quasi-experimental studies that included a credible comparison group were eligible. No restrictions were placed on the nature of the publication, nor were any restrictions placed on the country in which the study was conducted, although researchers only searched for English language studies.

Extensive data were extracted from each study, including information related to the general study characteristics, features of each treatment and comparison condition, characteristics of the participant sample, methodology, outcome measures, and results. All studies were double-coded by at least two members of the research team and all discrepancies were resolved through a consensus discussion. The effect sizes were analyzed using inverse variance weighted random effects meta-analysis methods.

Time Method

Cross-sectional

Universe

Research studies on the effectiveness of trauma-informed programs for justice-involved youth and programs for at-risk youth.

Unit(s) of Observation

Research studies

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

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Original Release Date

2020-01-30

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Weight

Dataset 6 (Effect Size) has one weight variable called ESGW (Effect size inverse variance weight).

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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.