Wraparound is a team-based service planning and coordination process intended to improve outcomes for children and youth with serious emotional and behavioral disorders and support them in their homes, schools, and communities. Given the substantial resources devoted to implementing wraparound, a meta-analysis of outcome studies was conducted to better understand current empirical support for this process. A literature search identified seven studies between 1986 and 2008 that documented the effects of youth receiving wraparound compared to control groups. Mean treatment effects across outcome domains ranged from medium for youth living situation (0.44) to small for mental health outcomes (0.31), overall youth functioning (0.25), school functioning (0.27), and juvenile justice-related outcomes (0.21). The overall mean effect size across studies was 0.33. Interpretation of results was complicated by the lack of consistent documentation of implementation fidelity across studies and conditions, variations in target population and intended outcomes, and methodological concerns. The authors conclude that, though the published wraparound research base is expanding and findings are largely positive, it continues to be in a preliminary state of development. However, there are insufficient data to support calls for wraparound’s acceptance or dismissal based on the strength of existing studies.

Effectiveness of the wraparound process for children with emotional and behavioral disorders: a meta-analysis.

Mapping the social service pathways of youth to and through the juvenile justice system: A comprehensive review

This study assessed the association between child maltreatment (ages 0—11) and offending behavior within gender-specific models. Prospectively collected data, including official measures of maltreatment and offending, were derived from the Chicago Longitudinal Study, a panel study of 1,539 low-income minority participants. Multivariate probit analyses revealed that maltreatment significantly predicted delinquency for males but not females yet forged a significant relation to adult crime for both genders. Exploratory, confirmatory, and comparative analyses suggested that mechanisms linking maltreatment to adult crime primarily differed across gender. For males, childhood-era externalizing behavior and school commitment along with adolescent-era socioemotional skills, delinquency, and educational attainment explained the maltreatment-crime nexus. For females, childhood-era parent factors along with adolescent indicators of externalizing behavior, cognitive performance, mobility, and educational attainment p...

Child Maltreatment and Offending Behavior: Gender-Specific Effects and Pathways.

This article presents an approach to systematic reviews that combines the Campbell Collaboration Crime and Justice standards and the realist notion of contexts-mechanisms-outcomes (CMO) configurations. Both approaches have their advantages and drawbacks, and the authors will make a case for combining both approaches to profit from their advantages without having to deal with their separate weaknesses. They proceed to discuss how their approach should be put into practice and illustrate its use by giving a concise description of an example from their own work on the effects of prevention of violence. The authors conclude with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of their suggested approach and state that combining Campbell standards and the realist evaluation approach should be done more often.

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1098214007313024

Combining Campbell Standards and the Realist Evaluation Approach The Best of Two Worlds

The role of inter-agency collaboration in facilitating receipt of behavioral health services for youth involved with child welfare and juvenile justice

The rate of youth with mental health needs is disproportionately high in juvenile justice. Wraparound planning involves families and providers in coordinating juvenile justice, mental health, and other services and supports. This study compares data from two groups of juvenile offenders with mental health problems: 106 youth in a juvenile justice wraparound program called Connections and a historical comparison group of 98 youth in traditional mental health services. Cox regression survival analyses revealed that youth in Connections were significantly less likely to recidivate at all, less likely to recidivate with a felony offense, and served less detention time.

Jodi Kerbs

Papers

Juvenile Offenders With Mental Health Needs: Reducing Recidivism Using Wraparound