ClinicalTrials.gg
Enrolling by invitationNCT06176300Updated Oct 9, 2026

Evaluation of Violence Prevention Strategies to Prevent and Reduce Community Levels of Youth Violence

An interventional study of PAR - the SEED Method and PAR-Youth Voices in Violence, Exposure to Violent Event and Adolescent Behavior, sponsored by Virginia Commonwealth University. Enrolling by invitation at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 12 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-10-09.

Sponsored by Virginia Commonwealth University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Other

From the registry’s dates

  • Registered 1 year 9 months after the study started (first participant enrolled Feb 2022, registered Dec 2023).
Updated Oct 9, 2026Primary completion movedStudy completion movedGo to Updates ↓
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
3,390
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
12 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The goal of this research study is to implement and evaluate a comprehensive community-level approach, Healthy Communities for Youth, that includes both a selective hospital-based prevention strategy, Emerging Leaders, and universal prevention strategies that increase Positive Youth Development opportunities through participatory action research, stakeholder education, community mobilization, and an overall focus on increasing community capacity for prevention. Key project aims are to evaluate the impact of Healthy Communities for Youth on community rates of youth violence using surveillance data and evaluate the impact of each violence prevention strategy on proximal outcomes including their impact on risk factors and protective processes related to multiple forms of youth violence.

Read the detailed description

This project focuses on three communities in Richmond selected based on US Census Bureau block groups and their high rates of youth violence and concentrated poverty. The community-level effects of implementing the comprehensive community-level approach will be evaluated using a multiple baseline design. The three communities were randomly assigned such that the intervention would begin in one community starting in the fourth quarter of Year 1, a second community in the fourth quarter of Year 2, and the third community will represent a no-intervention control community receiving training and technical assistance at the end of the project. Analyses will be conducted on community-level surveillance data on violence-related variables to determine if the introduction of the community-level intervention within each community is associated with subsequent changes in outcome measures.

02

Conditions studied

  • Violence
  • Exposure to Violent Event
  • Adolescent Behavior

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03

In context

Adolescent Behavior

305 studies on the registry are indexed under Adolescent Behavior; 47 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 3,390 is above the median of 172 across 256 interventional studies indexed under Adolescent Behavior.

Browse Adolescent Behavior studies →

Lead sponsor

Virginia Commonwealth University is the lead sponsor of 648 studies on the registry; 80 are open to participants now.

Of its 90 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 64 (71%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
12 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Eligibility criteria

PAR-SEED Method:

Inclusion criteria:

  • Community residents, youth aged 12-17 and parents, living in one of the intervention communities (Community A and Community B)
  • Stakeholders who reside or work in one of the intervention communities (Community A and Community B) or who contribute other expertise
  • Be able to consent/assent

Exlcusion criteria:

  • Those who do not meet the inclusion criteria
  • Those with limited English proficiency

Emerging Leaders:

Inclusion criteria:

  • Violently injured or high-risk youth that have either received or are receiving treatment or had a family member or relative receive treatment at VCU Health, or who live in one of the intervention communities, or have been referred by a community partner.
  • Aged 14 through 24
  • Reside in one of the two intervention communities (Community A and Community B) or in the control community (Community C)
  • Be able to consent/assent

Exclusion criteria:

  • Youth younger than 14 and older than 24 will be excluded.
  • Prisoners will be excluded.
  • Those living outside our community boundaries will be excluded.

PAR/Youth Voices:

Inclusion criteria:

  • Youth in grades 9 through 12
  • Reside in one of the intervention communities (Community A and Community B) and attend the designated high school(s) serving that community (Community A or Community B)
  • Be able to consent/assent

Exclusion criteria:

  • Youth in grades below 9th
  • Youth who have graduated from high school
  • Youth recruited for School A, cannot reside in the catchment areas for Communities B or C. Youth recruited for School B, cannot reside in the catchment areas for Communities A or C. Youth recruited for School C, cannot reside in the catchment areas for Communities A or B.
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Other
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Sequential assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
3,390 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Community A

    Behavioral: PAR - the SEED Method · Behavioral: PAR-Youth Voices · Behavioral: Emerging Leaders hospital-based intervention

  • Experimental
    Community B

    Behavioral: PAR - the SEED Method · Behavioral: PAR-Youth Voices · Behavioral: Emerging Leaders hospital-based intervention

  • No intervention
    Community C

Interventions

  • BehavioralPAR - the SEED Method

    The SEED Method is an evidence-based Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach that engages youth and adult stakeholders in collective decision-making and action in supporting PYD opportunities in their communities.

  • BehavioralPAR-Youth Voices

    Youth Voices is a developmentally appropriate and culturally responsive PAR approach designed for African American adolescents. The curriculum relies on frameworks including sociopolitical development (e.g., civic engagement and social justice), racial socialization, and racial identity development. Youth Voices will be implemented in high schools serving the intervention communities.

  • BehavioralEmerging Leaders hospital-based intervention

    Emerging Leaders is a violence prevention strategy that provides evidence-based intervention and resources for high-risk youth and their families in the youth's home and community. Emerging Leaders consists of four core components to prevent violence: (1) brief hospital-based violence intervention, (2) 3-months of community case management, (3) an in-home firearm safety counseling program, and (4) an 8-week youth positive development workshop series.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Reactive-Proactive Aggression Questionnaire (RPQ)

    23 item measures of aggression and antisocial behavior

    Time frame: Baseline and 6 months after baseline

  2. Beliefs About Aggression and Alternatives (BAA)

    12 item measures that uses a 4-point Likert scale to assess agreement and disagreement on items involving the use of aggression

    Time frame: Baseline and 6 months after baseline

  3. Firearm Aggression Questionnaire (FAQ)

    Self-report assessments of violence involving firearms

    Time frame: Baseline and 6 months after baseline

  4. Gun Violence Questionnaire (GVQ)

    Self-report assessments of violence involving firearms

    Time frame: Baseline and 6 months after baseline

  5. Peer Pressure for Fighting (PPF)

    A questionnaire about peer pressure for fighting is a subscale derived from the Problem Behavior Frequency Scales-Adolescent Report

    Time frame: Baseline and 6 months after baseline

  6. Youth Dating Violence Questionnaire (YDVQ)

    21 item measure that assesses youth dating violence perpetration

    Time frame: Baseline and 6 months after baseline

  7. Engagement in Community Advocacy

    Youth report on the frequency with which they have engaged in these specified community advocacy activities.

    Time frame: Baseline and 17 weeks later

  8. Orientation to Community Advocacy

    Youth report on how much they agree with statements that indicate and orientation of working cooperatively with others for community advocacy and change.

    Time frame: Baseline and 17 weeks later

  9. Emotional Motivation to Engage in Community Advocacy

    Youth report on how much they agree with statements about feeling anger in the face of thinking about and learning about social injustice and the extent to which they engage in specific emotion regulation strategies when feeling this anger.

    Time frame: Baseline and 17 weeks later

  10. Civic Engagement

    Youth report on how important it is to have certain social responsibility and political beliefs, the frequency with which they volunteer, their voting intentions in the future, and their news consumption.

    Time frame: Baseline and 17 weeks later

  11. Critical Consciousness

    Youth report on how much they agree with statements that reflect the awareness, perception, and reflection on societal experiences of inequality.

    Time frame: Baseline and 17 weeks later

Secondary outcomes

  1. Developmental Assets Profile (DAP)

    58 item measure that was developed for youth aged 11-18 to assess the strengths and qualities that are believed to promote resilience and positive development.

    Time frame: Baseline and 6 months after baseline

  2. Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC)

    189 item survey that assesses hyperactivity, aggression, conduct problems, and executive function in youth. It also assesses anxiety, depression, attention and learning problems, as well as the lack of certain essential skills

    Time frame: Baseline and 6 months after baseline

  3. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES)

    It is a 10-item measure intended to assess 10 types of childhood adversity in three different areas of abuse, including emotional and physical abuse, physical neglect, and abuse associated with living in a dysfunctional household. An ACE Score of 0 suggest that the person reported no exposure to childhood trauma. An ACE Score of 10 suggests that the person reported exposure to childhood trauma. The higher the ACE Score, the greater the likelihood that a person will develop one or more of the following health problems: ischemic heart disease, cancer, chronic bronchitis or emphysema, hepatitis or jaundice skeletal fractures, diabetes, smoking, sexually transmitted diseases , depression, etc.Measure administered to determine emotional, physical, and sexual abuse; emotional and physical neglect; and growing up with domestic violence, parental marital discord, substance abuse, mental illness, and incarceration of a household member experienced during the first 18 years of life

    Time frame: Baseline and 6 months after baseline

  4. Research skills & Orientation Toward Research

    Youth report on the extent to which they know how to use certain research skills and whether they believe that research skills can be useful for community change.

    Time frame: Baseline and 17 weeks after baseline

  5. Leadership Skills

    Youth report on the extent to which they believe they possess certain leadership skills.

    Time frame: Baseline and 17 weeks after baseline

  6. Orientation Toward Leadership

    Youth report on how much they agree that they have the capacity and responsibility to engage in leadership behaviors.

    Time frame: Baseline and 17 weeks after baseline

  7. Ethnic-Racial Identity

    Youth report on their own views about being a member of their ethnic-racial group, how central their ethnic-racial group membership is to their identity, and how they think others view people of their ethnic-racial group.

    Time frame: Baseline and 17 weeks after baseline

  8. Social and Emotional Skills

    Youth report on how easy or difficult it is for them to engage in certain positive social and emotional behaviors.

    Time frame: Baseline and 17 weeks after baseline

  9. Involvement in Youth Oriented Activities

    Youth report their participation and frequency of participation in 25 types of youth-oriented activities at school or in the community.

    Time frame: Baseline and 17 weeks after baseline

  10. Satisfaction & Experiences in the Youth Voices Program

    Youth report their overall satisfaction, perception, and important experiences from participating in the Youth Voices program and working together in a group.

    Time frame: Baseline and 17 weeks after baseline

07

Study locations

1 site
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Updates

1 registry update since Sep 25, 2026
Primary completion
Aug 30, 2026→Feb 28, 2027
Oct 9, 2026
Study completion
Aug 30, 2026→Feb 28, 2027
Oct 9, 2026
Show all 1 update
  1. Oct 9, 2026
    Primary completion Aug 30, 2026→Feb 28, 2027
    Study completion Aug 30, 2026→Feb 28, 2027
    + 1 other change: verification date

From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT06176300
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Dec 19, 2023
Start date
Feb 16, 2022
Primary completion
Feb 28, 2027 (estimated)
Completion
Feb 28, 2027 (estimated)
Last update
Oct 9, 2026

Study contacts

Terri Sullivan, PhD
principal investigator · Virginia Commonwealth University

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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