Research That Matters (January 17 - 20, 2008)

Purpose: Youth in residential treatment settings often exhibit problems such as high occurrences of truancy, impulsiveness, aggression, academic problems, delayed social development, adjustment disorder and conduct disorder (Curtis et al., 2001; Young, Dore, & Pappenfort, 1988). Other studies report that children in residential treatment have typically experienced a number of unsuccessful placements, are more emotionally disturbed, display more aggressive behaviors, and show more abuse-related symptoms (Singh, Landrum, Donatelli, Hampton, & Ellis, 1994; Small, Kennedy, & Bender, 1991). Therefore, community interventions focused on restructuring the youth's family, friend, school, and recreational systems are advocated as more desirable alternatives (Carney et al., 2003; Embry, Vander Stoep, Evens, Ryan, & Pollock, 2000). This study is a real-time prospective evaluation of a housing intervention in Scotland supporting vulnerable young people between the ages of 16 and 25 years. The main aim of the project was to help young people remain in the community by helping them maintain their tenancies and to seek employment and training. Methods: This is a 4-year longitudinal study of 135 young people in a largely rural part of Scotland, utilizing single-system designs and a one-group pretest posttest design. The sample included all young people referred to the project in this period. Moray Council Domains' Questionnaire (reported reliability alpha .87) was used as a self-report measure addressing the youth's quality of life in 7 domains: 1) living arrangements; 2) family and personal; 3) physical health and substances; 4) health--emotional and mental; 5) offending and environment; 6) education, training and employment; and 7) lifestyle. Data analysis included the paired samples t test and binary logistic regression carried out every six months in the four-year period. Results: It was found that 71% improved in their aggregate Domains' scores, and the paired samples t test indicated a significant impact with a large effect size. It was found that youth with learning disabilities and those with better relationships with schools were particularly more likely to improve then their peers. However, the repeated used of binary logistic regression models indicated that the intervention was seven times less likely to succeed with persistent juvenile offenders when compared to other young people in the sample. Implications: This type of intervention in the community is largely effective with most youth, but there is a small minority, e.g. persistent young offenders, where the impact is less likely to be positive, and therefore residential treatment may be required for a small group of young people.