A Randomized Trial of a Mentoring Program for High Risk Children

描述（由申请人提供）：辅导被广泛认为是一种有效的预防干预各种青少年问题和后果，包括行为障碍和犯罪，学业失败和辍学，物质使用和滥用，过早的性行为和青少年父母。近年来，指导计划得到了地方、州和联邦各级决策者的大力支持。虽然有各种各样的结果研究辅导，辅导似乎至少有小，在短期内对青年的积极影响，很少有人知道的长期影响的方案对“高风险”的儿童被认为是最需要辅导，几乎没有什么是知道的特点和质量的辅导关系是如何与青年的成果。我们建议进行一项纵向随机对照预防性干预试验，旨在评估一项名为儿童之友（FOTC）的既定、私人资助、长期、密集的青年指导计划的影响。FOTC与市中心的公立学校合作，以确定和招收被认为是在高风险的行为障碍，学业失败，和青少年父母由于严重的水平和/或个人和家庭的风险因素的组合10岁以下的儿童。FOTC导师，被称为“朋友”，是受薪的全职员工，他们接受严格的培训和监督。朋友们一次不超过8个孩子。通过FOTC，儿童接触到各种技能建设和娱乐经验，并协助获得各种领域的资源，包括学术和身心健康服务。该研究的参与者（N = 256; 80%为少数民族，50%为女孩）将通过位于波士顿、弗朗西斯科、西雅图和俄勒冈州的波特兰的贫困内城地区的现有项目招募。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，和朋友将在幼儿园开始计划之前进行评估，并在随后的每一年，通过三年级结束。每年将对小学教师进行评估;将直接观察幼儿与儿童的社会互动;并将收集学校和FOTC方案的记录。每次评估时，将收集有关儿童行为、情感和学业适应的信息，以及有关儿童与同伴、儿童与照顾者关系、儿童与朋友和儿童与其他成人的质量和特征的信息（即，自然导师）关系。分析将检查儿童的结果超时;的影响，儿童关系质量的程序满意度，参与度和持久性以及儿童的结果;和基于种族，儿童性别和基线风险状态的差异有效性。这项研究的结果将对指导实践和政策产生重要影响。

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.