The long-term effects of the Houston Child Advocates, Inc., program on children and family outcomes.

The objective of the study is to investigate the longitudinal effects of the Houston Child Advocates, Inc., program on children's outcomes. The treatment group consisted of children in the court system that were assigned Child Advocates volunteers, and the comparison children were chosen randomly from a similar population of children. The treatment group had significantly higher scores on the protective factor and family functioning measures and received more social services than those in the comparison group. Children in the treatment group also had significantly fewer placement changes and did better academically and behaviorally in school than children in the comparison group.