Researchers win grant to study troubled girls.

Byline: The Register-Guard

The Eugene-based Oregon Social Learning Center has received a $650,000 federal grant to study ways of preventing delinquency among teen-age girls.

The five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will fund a program aimed at keeping girls from certain kinds of high-risk behavior that often lead to problems in school or with the law. The research could lead to programs that help girls at risk for delinquency avoid trouble and stay in school.

"Understanding the factors that lead to anti-social behavior will greatly help our communities prevent delinquent behavior before it begins," said U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who with Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., helped secure the grant.

The new study is an outgrowth of previous work done by OSLC researcher Patti Chamberlain. Chamberlain looked at how girls with chronic criminal behavior and mental health problems fared in a program she developed called Treatment Foster Care.

In Treatment Foster Care, youths are matched with foster families who are trained to provide young people with close supervision, adult mentoring and consistent limits. That study is continuing, but has shown signs of success, such as a reduced arrest rate among the teens taking part, said research scientist Leslie Leve.

The new study will focus on using the same techniques to help teen-age girls avoid substance abuse, risky sexual behavior and delinquency. The center hopes to recruit up to 100 girls from the Eugene-Springfield area over three years to take part in the study.

The OSLC is an independent, nonprofit research center that investigates the social and psychological aspects of individual and family development and looks for ways to help children and adolescents avoid or work out of behavior problems.