Evaluation of an Entrepreneurship Program for American-Indian Youth

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health449 enrolled

Overview

This study will use a randomized controlled design to evaluate whether a youth entrepreneurship/life-skills intervention for reservation-based American Indian adolescents (ages 13-15) improves psychosocial, behavioral health, educational, and economic outcomes from baseline for up to 3 years follow-up as compared to a recreational sports league control condition.

Intervention activities will be held over a 3 night/4 day residential camp and 6 weekend workshops during the academic year. The control condition will consist of a recreational sports league held on 3 Saturdays, also during the academic year.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

449

Conditions

Depressive Symptoms Substance Use

Interventions

Arrowhead Business Group CurriculumBEHAVIORAL

Arrowhead Business Group (ABG) is a culturally tailored entrepreneurship/life-skills intervention, which features instruction from American Indian paraprofessionals in an effort to decrease drug use, depressive symptoms, hopelessness and other high-risk behaviors among youth while improving their school performance and college/career aspirations.

Recreational League Control ConditionBEHAVIORAL

The control condition will consist of a recreational sports league that will be led by local American Indian study staff who are experienced with Johns Hopkins camps and community-based Apache sports programs. Activities will be conducted on 3 Saturdays during the academic year to mixed gender groups of approximately 50 participants.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 13 YearsMax age: 15 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * American Indian ethnicity and primary residence within the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. * Participants must be 13-15 years old, enrolled as a student at one of the participating high schools, and must have parent/guardian consent for participation in the study. Exclusion Criteria: * Youth that are currently enrolled in foster care will not be eligible to participate in the study. * Those unable to participate in any of the evaluation assessments or intervention components will also be excluded.

Locations (1)

Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health - Whiteriver Office

Whiteriver, Arizona, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Decreased substance use as measured by Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) in treatment vs. control group at 24 months follow-up

Time frame: 24 months follow-up

Secondary Outcomes

Decreased depressive symptoms on Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) in treatment vs. control group at 24 months follow-up

Time frame: 24 months follow-up

Increased academic achievement as measured by school records and Across Time Orientation measure in treatment vs. control group at 24 months follow-up

Time frame: 24 months follow-up

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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