A Randomized Trial of a Mentoring Program for High Risk Children

说明(申请人提供)：辅导被广泛认为是对各种青少年问题和后果的有效预防性干预，包括行为障碍和青少年犯罪、学业失败和辍学、药物使用和滥用，以及早期性行为和青少年为人父母。近年来，地方、州和联邦各级的政策制定者对指导计划给予了大力支持。虽然已经有各种关于辅导的结果研究，而且辅导似乎至少在短期内对年轻人产生了小的积极影响，但人们对项目对被认为最需要辅导的“高危”儿童的长期影响知之甚少，也几乎不知道辅导关系的特征和质量与青少年的结果是如何相关的。我们建议进行一项纵向随机对照预防干预试验，旨在评估已建立的、私人资助的、长期的、密集的青年辅导计划的影响，该计划被称为儿童之友(FOTC)。FOTC与市中心的公立学校合作，识别和招收被认为是行为障碍、学业失败和青少年父母身份高风险的幼儿园适龄儿童，因为个人和家庭风险因素的严重程度和/或组合。FOTC导师被称为“朋友”，他们是经过严格培训和监督的有偿全职员工。朋友们一次与不超过八个孩子一起工作。通过FOTC，儿童可以接触到各种技能培养和娱乐体验，并帮助他们获得各种领域的资源，包括学术和身心健康服务。这项研究的参与者(N=256人；80%是少数民族，50%是女孩)将通过位于波士顿、旧金山、西雅图和俄勒冈州波特兰等贫困市中心地区的现有计划招募。儿童将被随机分配到FOTC或转介控制条件下。儿童、他们的主要照顾者和朋友将在幼儿园课程开始之前以及随后的每一年到三年级结束时接受评估。每年将对小学教师进行评估；对朋友与孩子的社交互动进行直接观察；并收集学校和FOTC计划的记录。在每一次评估中，将收集关于儿童行为、情绪和学业适应的信息，以及关于儿童与同伴、儿童与照顾者、儿童与朋友以及儿童与其他成人(即自然导师)关系的质量和特征的信息。分析将检查儿童加班后的结果；朋友-孩子关系质量对项目满意度、参与度和坚持性的影响以及对儿童结果的影响；以及基于种族、儿童性别和基线风险状况的差异有效性。这项研究的发现将对指导实践和政策产生重要的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Mentoring is widely viewed as an effective preventive intervention for a variety of youth problems and consequences, including conduct disorder and delinquency, academic failure and school drop out, substance use and abuse, and early sexual behavior and teen parenthood. In recent years, there has been strong support for mentoring programs from policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels. While there have been a variety of outcome studies on mentoring, and mentoring appears to have at least small, positive effects on youth in the short run, little is known about the long term influence of programs on the "high risk" children assumed to need mentoring the most, and almost nothing is known about how characteristics and qualities of the mentoring relationship are related to youth outcomes. We propose to conduct a longitudinal randomized controlled preventive intervention trial designed to assess the impacts of an established, privately funded, long term, intensive youth mentoring program called Friends of the Children (FOTC). FOTC partners with inner city public schools to identify and enroll kindergarten-age children thought to be at high risk for conduct disorder, academic failure, and teen parenthood due to serious levels and/or combinations of individual and family risk factors. FOTC mentors, called "Friends", are paid, full time employees who are rigorously trained and supervised. Friends work with not more than eight children at a time. Through FOTC, children are exposed to a variety of skill building and recreational experiences and assisted in accessing resources in a variety of areas, including academic and physical and mental health services. Participants for the study (N = 256; 80% minority, 50% girls) will be recruited through existing programs located within impoverished, inner city areas of Boston; San Francisco; Seattle; and Portland, Oregon. Children will be randomly assigned to either FOTC or a referral control condition. Children, their primary caregivers, and Friends will be assessed prior to program initiation in kindergarten, and during each subsequent year through the end of third grade. On an annual basis, primary teachers will be assessed; direct observations of Friend-child social interaction will be conducted; and school and FOTC program records will be collected. At each assessment, information will be collected on child behavioral, emotional, and academic adjustment, as well as on the quality and characteristics of child-peer, child-caregiver relations, child-Friend, and child-other adult (i.e., natural mentor) relationships. Analyses will examine child outcomes overtime; the impact of Friend-child relationship quality on program satisfaction, engagement, and persistence as well as on child outcomes; and differential effectiveness based on ethnicity, child gender, and baseline risk status. The findings from this study will have important implications for mentoring practice and policy.