New article alert: Assessing the Efficacy of a Family-Based Juvenile Court Intervention

Dr. Cavanagh's latest article, Assessing the Efficacy of a Family-Based Juvenile Court Intervention, is out now in Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice.

Family-level interventions can be highly effective for justice-involved youth. But, not all programs work for a given population. We evaluated a voluntary parenting program using 15 years of juvenile court data (N = 1,844).

We found that, controlling for robust predictors of recidivism, participation in the parenting program was NOT associated with a decrease in recidivism for their justice-involved children, but rather an INCREASE in recidivism.

What’s going on here? A moderation analysis revealed that the iatrogenic association was stronger for youth who entered the court with a low risk of recidivism, as well as for families who did not complete the program.

Although the program was well-intentioned, participating families often had more serious challenges than the program was built to address. Rather than offering relief, the demands of the program may have added stress for parents already stretched thin by jobs, health, and childrearing.

This is a great example of how our research partners co-create research with our team. The juvenile court had a sense that this parenting program was not going well, and asked us to evaluate it empirically. Now, they can change their approach to something more successful.

Researchers who conduct program evaluations are encouraged to examine WHY and for WHOM a program is not working. Mixed-methods data can be a great approach in this line of research.

Practitioners should know that ineffective or misaligned interventions can do more harm than good and waste resources. Families need programs that meet them where they are.