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Predicting Improvement of Transitioning Young People in the Partnerships for Youth Transition Initiative: Findings from a Multisite Demonstration

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Abstract

Prior research has indicated that young people with serious mental health conditions show poorer progress and greater challenges in the transition to adulthood, as reflected by lower rates of employment and postsecondary education, higher rates of criminal justice involvement, and greater interference in daily activities from mental health and substance use disorders. Little knowledge exists, however, regarding improvement on these indicators among young people enrolled in community-based transition support programs and individual characteristics that might moderate this improvement. This study describes rates of improvement on indicators of transition progress and challenges among young people enrolled in a multisite demonstration of transition support programs. Young people in the study showed increased rates of progress and decreased rates of challenges over four quarters of enrollment. Moderation of these changes by individual characteristics including demographic, historical, and diagnostic variables suggested ways of improving transition support programs and avenues for future research.

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Notes

  1. To discourage direct comparisons of individual programs, by site outcome data were not included in this paper.

  2. Moderation by age was tested with age entered as a 10 category variable, such that each age (i.e., 14, 15, 16, etc.) served as its own category. Due to the low numbers of 24- to 25-year-old TAY w/SMC, these individuals were grouped in the 23-year-old category. Aggregate groups are depicted for clarity of presentation.

  3. Note that in Figure 3, the predicted probability trajectory for individuals with substance abuse inpatient treatment histories derives from the contrast between those with and without substance abuse inpatient treatment history. Similarly, the predicted probability trajectories for individuals with co-occurring substance use disorder diagnoses derived from the contrast between these individuals and those lacking co-occurring diagnoses.

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Correspondence to Mason G. Haber PhD.

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We would like to thank the Partnerships for Youth Transition Initiative funders, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) and the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) for their support of the demonstration and this evaluation.

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Haber, M.G., Karpur, A., Deschênes, N. et al. Predicting Improvement of Transitioning Young People in the Partnerships for Youth Transition Initiative: Findings from a Multisite Demonstration. J Behav Health Serv Res 35, 488–513 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11414-008-9126-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11414-008-9126-2

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