Foster Care Program Reduces Delinquency
and Improves School Work for Girls
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Brief Description:
Parental abuse during childhood increases the risk of involvement
with the juvenile justice system, according to a study funded
by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Transcript:
Akinso: Parental abuse during childhood increases
the risk of involvement with the juvenile justice system, according
to a study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Compton: This study is a long term follow
up of girls who are treated in juvenile justice.
Akinso: Dr. Wilson Compton is the Director
of the Division of Epidemiology, Services and Prevention Research
at NIDA.
Compton: It's comparing a therapeutic foster
care to the standard group home approach for treating these juvenile
delinquent girls.
Akinso: The study of the Multidimensional Treatment
Foster Care intervention for delinquent teenage girls with histories
of maltreatment, showed that girls enrolled in the foster care
were more likely to be engaged with school work, and as a result,
less likely to spend time in locked settings such as jail, compared
with girls placed in standard group care. Dr. Compton highlights
the findings.
Compton: We've known for several years that
therapeutic foster care can be a very useful treatment approach
for juvenile delinquent boys. And based on the results of this
study we can be quite optimistic about its use for juvenile delinquent
girls as well. They previously had reported the one year findings.
But what's very exciting is that when you follow up these girls,
two years after they were initially found in juvenile courts,
that their outcomes continue to improve. So they're even better
at two years. And the differences between the standard group
home treatment and the therapeutic foster care are even greater
at two years than they were in one year.
Akinso: In addition, the biological families
of the Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care girls participated
in family therapy where they received information on parenting
skills that they participated during home visits with their daughters.
Dr. Compton says that improving the outcomes for adolescents
in this demographic, is a necessary goal.
Compton: We're always looking for ways to improve
the outcomes of these very high risk adolescents. So this is
a market improvement in our ability to take care of delinquent
girls. We've had a fair amount of success in improving the outcomes
of delinquent boys and this adds to the information regarding
the other gender.
Akinso: Dr. Compton says that the only limitation
he sees is that the study was relatively small; he would like
to have a large replicated study. This is Wally Akinso at the
National Institutes of Health Bethesda, Maryland.