Behavioral disorder/behavioral problems Mental and Behavioural Disorders
Conditions
Interventions
The experimental arm consists of Functional Family Therapy (FFT). The therapy targets youth between the age of 11 and 19 from various ethnic and cultural groups. The therapy is a short-term interventi
Sponsors
Norwegian Center for Child Behavioral Development (Norway)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: 1. Youth who have committed crimes and at risk of committing more crimes 2. Youth who show aggressive and violent behavior, vandalism, and serious rule violation at home, in the community, or at school (conduct disorder) 3. Youth who are at least 11 years of age, but younger than 19 4. Immediate danger of placement outside the home 5. Truancy or problems at school related to behavior problems 6. Youth who display problem behavior at school or toward parents around school issues 7. Youth who display verbal aggression or verbal threats about hurting others related to the problems above 8. Youth who exhibit drug abuse related to the problems above 9. Youth who display problem behavior that makes drug abuse possible or in relation to parents when they communicate about or intervene in the youth's drug abuse 10. Youth who abuse drugs after displaying problem behavior The FFT target group includes youth who are at risk of developing the kind of serious behavior problems described above. Youth at risk will be defined as having a score on the Youth Level of Services (YLS) of 9 (nine) or more, thus in the medium-, high- or very high-risk categories. YLS has a four-category risk rating of low (0 to 8), medium (9 to 22), high (23 to 34), or very high (35 to 42).
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: 1. Youth living by themselves, or youth who lack a primary caregiver 2. Youth who are autistic, acute psychotic, or in acute danger of committing suicide 3. Homes that pose a threat to the therapist?s life or safety 4. Cases that are still under assessment/investigation by the local child welfare services 5. Other services or treatments have been initiated that might interfere with the treatment
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| The assessment of the key outcome measure in both the intervention and comparison group will be conducted before treatment and 6month after the initiation of the intervention, and again 12 months following the second assessment. Problem behavior and social competence 1. Parent reports 1.1 Child Behavior Checklist, Parent version. The Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Rescorla; CBCL/6-18) will be completed by parents. The instruments have been standardized and validated in Norwegian norming studies (Nøvik, 1999) and in clinical trials (e.g., Ogden & Amlund-Hagen, 2006). The externalizing scales, aggression and delinquency, the attention problems scale, the internalizing broadband syndrome scale, and the total problem scale, will be used in the present study 1.2. The SNAP-4- Rating scale (Swanson, Nolan, & Pelham, 1983) will be used to measure inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity, and ODD. SNAP uses items from the DSM-5 criteria 1.3. The Connors Index Questionnaire (Connors, 1968). A general index of childhood problems 1.4. Social Skills Rating System. The Social Skills Rating System (SSRS, Gresham & Elliott, 1990) is a standardized, multi-rater instrument that assesses social skills in children and youth. The parent version covers cooperation, assertion, responsibility, and self-control. The teacher version measures cooperation, self-control, and assertion. Higher scores indicate greater social skills. 2. Teacher reports 2.1. The Teacher Report Form (TRF/6-18; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) obtains teacher's reports of children's academic performance, adaptive functioning, and behavioral/emotional problems 2.2. SNAP-4 and The Connors Index Questionnaire (see parent report) 2.3. The Social Skills Rating System (SSRS, Gresham & Elliott, 1990; Ogden, 2003) (see parent report) 3. Youth self-report 3.1. To tap covert and overt antisocial behavior that pertains to violent offending, general delinquency, and status offenses, we will use the Self-Reported Delinquency | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| A standard demographic questionnaire will be administered to the parents. This questionnaire obtains items assessing annual family income, parents/target child age, civil status, gender, education level, receiving welfare or not, target child?s onset of antisocial behavior, treatment history, ethnicity, family size, and history of out-of-home placement and arrests. 1. Parent reports 1.1. Parental mental distress will be measured with a Norwegian version of the parental mental distress 8-item version of the Hopkins Symptom Check List (SCL-8; Derogatis, Lipman, Rickels, Uhlenhuth, & Covi, 1974; Flink et al., 1995) 1.2. The degree of commitment, help, and support family members provide for one other (the Cohesion scale) and the amount of openly expressed anger and conflict among family members (the Conflict scale) will be measured with the Family Environment Scale (FES; Moos & Moos, 2002) 1.3. The Norwegian version of the Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS; Straus, 1979; CTS2; Bendixsen, 2005; Strauss, Hamby, Boney-McCoy, & Sugerman, 1996) will be implemented to measure the occurrence of several methods of conflict resolution used by the caretakers 1.4. The Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU) will be used to measure emotional dysregulation. These traits have proven to be important for designating a distinct subgroup group of antisocial and aggressive youth. The ICU has three subscales: callousness, uncaring, and unemotional. 1.5. The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT, Babor et al., 2006) will be used to measure parents? alcohol consumption 1.6. The Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ) will be used to measure several dimensions of parenting that have proven to be important for understanding the causes of conduct problems and delinquency in youth: positive reinforcement, parental involvement, inconsistent discipline, poor monitoring and supervision, and harsh discipline 1.7. The Unidimensional Relationship Closeness Scale (URCS; Dibble, Levine, & Par | — |
Countries
Norway
Outcome results
None listed