Engaging delinquent adolescents in family-based interventions

Background: How can the untapped potential of efficacious family interventions be maximized to prevent HIV infection among delinquent adolescents? By enhancing participation – the recruitment, engagement, and retention – of families, the effectiveness of a family intervention can be significantly strengthened. We will present how we enhanced participation. HIV prevention efforts that have specifically targeted delinquent adolescents have had limited results. Efforts that have achieved success suggest that individually focused prevention efforts need to be embedded within broader social contexts, such as the family system, to sustain behavior change. Methods: We utilized the “Families that Care: Guiding Good Choices” (GGC) program and attempted to optimize participation by developing an enhanced protocol that addressed contextual barriers for parents. Phase 1 included the development of the enhanced protocol. Phase 2 was the pilot of the enhanced protocol with African American delinquent adolescents who use drugs and their parents/guardians. Families were randomly assigned to a protocol condition (enhanced protocol and GGC or standard protocol and GGC) and monitored at 3 months. Results: The enhanced protocol included a motivational pre-session and an inspirational DVD. The content of the DVD evolved from qualitative analysis of key informant interviews and focus groups. Results from the pilot suggest the enhanced protocol improved recruitment and retention. Conclusion: Media can be used to significantly increase participation.