Evaluation of Juvenile Justice Mental Health Initiative with Randomized Design

Project Summary for 2001-IJ-CX-0017 This project will consist of both a process and impact evaluation of the St. Louis Juvenile Justice Mental Health Initiative, an inter-agency collaboration to provide mental health services to families of youth referred to the juvenile justice system for delinquency who also suffer from serious emotional disturbances. The process evaluation will examine the comparability of control and program groups within the study and the degree and types of services received by each program participant and family. The impact evaluation will conduct an analysis of pre- and post- program official records data, self-reported delinquency, and standardized measures of pychological and parental functioning. Longitudinal, multi-variate, and structural equation procedures will be used to analyze program impact, psychological and family functioning, and school success.