Impact of Brief Intervention Services on Drug-Using Truant Youths' Self-Reported Delinquency and Arrest Charges: A Longitudinal Study

ABSTRACT

The issue of delinquency among truant youths is insufficiently documented in the literature. There is a need to elucidate this issue, and assess the efficacy of interventions to reduce this problem behavior. The present National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-funded study addressed this gap by examining the impact of a Brief Intervention (BI), originally designed to address youth substance use, on their delinquent behavior over an 18-month follow-up period (for self-reported delinquency) and a 24-month follow-up period (for official record delinquency). A number of significant BI intervention effects with sizable effect sizes were found, as well as a number of marginally significant BI effects. In particular, significant reductions in arrest charges at 24-month follow-up for youths receiving BI services compared to controls were among the key findings of this study. Service delivery implications and directions for future analyses are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• brief intervention for truant youth
• truant youth delinquency-crime

Acknowledgments

We are grateful for the collaboration with and support of our work by the Tampa Police Department, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office (HCSO), the Hillsborough County Public Schools, the Agency for Community Treatment Services, and 13th Judicial Circuit, Juvenile Diversion Program. We also appreciate Ms. Kimberly Barrett's assistance on this project between 2009 and 2011. We are grateful for Dr. Werner Wothke's help in calculating the intervention effect sizes. Sgt. Williams from the HCSO was very helpful in obtaining adult arrest data for us.

Funding

The research reported in this article was funded by National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Grant No. DA021561. We are grateful for NIDA's support.