Youth Empowerment Solutions for Positive Youth Development

Summary

The Youth Empowerment Solutions for Positive Youth Development (YES) Study , is a randomized controlled trial that compares youth in standard after school programs offering activity choice (e.g. sports, academic enrichment, arts) to youth assigned to an after school program that includes training in community development, formation of intergenerational partnerships and experience conducting community improvement projects. The study aims are to: 1) implement and evaluate an empirically developed intervention for empowering youth (YES) using a randomized controlled trial design in a high risk urban and suburban sample; 2) test a conceptual model that posits a causal relationship from youth empowerment processes to positive developmental outcomes; and 3) follow youth over time to assess sustainability of gains in healthy development. Developmental outcomes will be assessed at baseline, curriculum completion and at three and nine months post-intervention.

This study will be referred to as the Genesee County Afterschool Study (GCAS) in recruitment, consents, assents and promotional materials. The study compares different types of after school programs, and we will be randomly assigning students into two groups, 1) the "regular" 21st Century Afterschool programs and 2) the "regular" 21st Century Afterschool programs with the YES supplement. We do not want to bias desirability of the random groups by naming one of the groups to be tested in the study name. Therefore, in documents we will refer to the study as the "Genesee County Afterschool Study (GCAS)."

Study hypotheses:

1. Youth in the YES intervention arm will demonstrate increased intrapersonal, interactional, and behavioral empowerment than youth in the comparison group arm.
2. Youth in the YES intervention arm will demonstrate higher scores on the positive developmental outcome variables, and lower scores on the negative developmental outcome variables, than youth in the comparison group arm.
3. Behavioral empowerment will partially mediate the relations between intrapersonal and interactional empowerment and youth developmental outcomes, such that youth with greater intrapersonal and interactional empowerment skills will demonstrate increased behavioral empowerment, which in turn will result in higher scores on positive developmental outcome variables, and lower scores on negative developmental outcome variables.

Conditions

• Violence
• Child or Adolescent Antisocial Behavior

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Youth Empowerment Solutions (YES)

Participants receiving the The 16-week, 30-session YES curriculum YES as a part of the 21st Century after-school program at middle schools that have high economic and academic needs. 21st Century is a U.S. Department of Education program which provides academic enrichment opportunities during non-school hours and during the summer for children who attend low-performing schools in areas with high poverty (U.S. Department of Education, 2009).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Michigan

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Marc A Zimmerman, PhD · University of Michigan

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

10 Years

Max Age

15 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2011-07-31

Primary Completion

2017-07-31

Completion

2017-07-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations