A Randomized Trial of a Mentoring Program for High Risk Children

描述（由申请人提供）：辅导被广泛认为是对各种青少年问题和后果的有效预防干预，包括行为障碍和犯罪、学业失败和辍学、药物使用和滥用、早期性行为和青少年父母。近年来，地方、州和联邦各级政策制定者对指导项目给予了大力支持。虽然已经有各种各样的指导结果的研究，指导似乎至少有小的，在短期内对青少年的积极影响，很少知道项目对“高风险”儿童的长期影响被认为是最需要指导的，几乎没有人知道师徒关系的特点和质量是如何与青少年的结果相关的。我们建议进行一项纵向随机对照预防干预试验，旨在评估一个已建立的、私人资助的、长期的、强化的青少年辅导项目——儿童之友（FOTC）的影响。FOTC与市中心的公立学校合作，识别并招收被认为有行为障碍、学业失败和青少年父母高风险的幼儿园年龄儿童，这些儿童是由于严重的个人和家庭风险因素和/或组合而导致的。FOTC的导师被称为“朋友”，他们是有偿的全职员工，接受严格的培训和监督。朋友们一次照顾的孩子不会超过八个。通过FOTC，儿童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。研究参与者（N = 256, 80%为少数民族，50%为女孩）将通过位于波士顿贫困内城地区的现有项目招募；旧金山;西雅图;以及俄勒冈州的波特兰。儿童将被随机分配到FOTC或转诊控制条件。儿童，他们的主要照顾者和朋友将在幼儿园项目开始之前进行评估，并在随后的每一年进行评估，直到三年级结束。每年对小学教师进行评估；直接观察朋友与孩子之间的社会互动；学校和FOTC项目记录将被收集。在每次评估中，将收集有关儿童行为、情感和学业调整的信息，以及儿童-同伴、儿童-照顾者关系、儿童-朋友和儿童-其他成人（即自然导师）关系的质量和特征。分析将检查儿童的长期表现；亲子关系质量对项目满意度、参与度、持久性以及对儿童结局的影响；基于种族、儿童性别和基线风险状况的不同效果。本研究的结果将对指导实践和指导政策有重要的启示。

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.