Recruitment. Court personnel at each site provided information to a research associate regarding adolescents with pending intake hearings. The research associate then reviewed the information about each case to determine if the adolescent met the inclusion criteria (see Sampling for more details), which were developed based on our analysis of court records. Adolescents who met these criteria were approached about study involvement after their disposition had been imposed, and informed consent was obtained from the parent/guardian for the child’s involvement.
Interviewing. Interviews are conducted in private locations in the community or in secure residences (as necessary) using laptop computers. Computer administration software designed for this study allows for anonymous keypad data entry by the participant for sections of the interview covering sensitive topics and assists with administration (e.g., incorporates skip patterns) and data entry.
Interview Timeline. Interviews with the youth include a baseline, 6 month follow up, 12 month follow up (1 year), 18 month follow up (1.5 year), 24 month follow up (2 year), 30 month follow up (2.5 year), 36 month follow up (3 year), 48 month follow up (4 year), 60 month follow up (5 year), 84 month follow up (7 year), and a 108 month follow up (9 year).
Training. A training curriculum was developed by the UC team, including specific protocols for research ethics, recruiting and interviewing research participants, the consent process, maintaining confidentiality, and data security.