The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) community-based mentoring (CBM) program for prevention of crime and delinquency/conduct problems, including risk and protective factors for these outcomes. Approximately 2,500 youth ages 10-16 will be randomly assigned to either the CBM program or an untreated control group. Study outcomes will be assessed over a 4-year period via both youth- and parent-report surveys and official records of police/court contact (e.g., arrests).
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) community-based mentoring (CBM) program for prevention of crime and delinquency/conduct problems, including risk and protective factors for these outcomes. Participants will be recruited from 16 BBBSA affiliates, which are located in different regions of the U.S. and were invited to serve as sites for the study using a random selection process. The study sample will consist of approximately 2,500 youth ages 10-16 whose parents seek services from one of the participating BBBSA affiliates during the study enrollment period and for whom consent/assent to participate in the research is obtained. Enrolled youth will be randomly assigned to participate in the CBM program (treatment group) or to a control group (no BBBSA programming during the youth's 4-year period of study participation). Youth will be assigned in a 3:1 ratio to the treatment and control groups. Youth and parents will complete survey measures both at study enrollment, prior to notification of assignment to control or treatment group, and 18 months later. Official records of police/court contact (e.g., arrests), with separate parent/guardian consent as provided at study enrollment, will be obtained both for the period preceding each youth's enrollment in the study and for a 4-year period following enrollment. The study has 4 specific aims: 1. To determine the effects of participation in the Big Brothers Big Sisters CBM program on youth offending as measured by police/court records, i.e., person offense, property offense, drug law violation, public order offense, or status offense. 2. To determine the effects of participation in the BBBS CBM program on the likelihood of youths' involvement in delinquent behavior/conduct problems as assessed by youth and parent reports. 3. To determine the effects of BBBS CBM program participation on the likelihood of youths' involvement in substance use as assessed by self-reports of alcohol use to point of drunkenness, tobacco, or illicit drug use. 4. To determine the effects of BBBS CBM program participation on both risk and protective factors for delinquent/criminal behavior, such as aggression, depressive symptoms, association with deviant peers, self-control, and school connectedness, as assessed by youth and/or parent reports, and to explore the role of these effects in mediating effects of program participation on offending, delinquent behavior, and substance use.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
1,361
One-to-one mentoring provided by an adult volunteer with training and ongoing monitoring and support from program staff.
University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Arrest
0/1 indicator based on official police/court/juvenile office records of any of the following types of offenses-person offense, property offense, drug law violation, public order offense, or status offense
Time frame: 4 years
Arrest
0/1 indicator based on official police/court/juvenile office records of any of the following types of offenses-person offense, property offense, drug law violation, public order offense, or status offense
Time frame: 18 months
Delinquency
0/1 indicator based on youth and parent report using 13 items from the Add Health Study (Bearman et al., 1997)
Time frame: 18 months
Substance use
0/1 indicator based on youth report of alcohol use to point of drunkenness, tobacco, or illicit drug use
Time frame: 18 months
Truancy
3-item youth-report measure (2 items from Herrera et al., 2013)
Time frame: 18 months
Association with deviant peers
A single measure computed as the average of scores on continuous youth-report measure (Elliott et al., 1996) and one-item (0/1) parent-report indicator from Youth Risk Index (Herrera et al., 2013) after each score has been standardized to mean of 0 and standard deviation of 1.
Time frame: 18 months
School suspensions
One-item (0/1) parent-report indicator from Youth Risk Index (Herrera et al., 2013)
Time frame: 18 months
Depressive symptoms
Depressive Symptoms Pediatric Self-Report - Short Form from the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) (Irwin et al., 2010). Lower scores indicate a better outcome
Time frame: 18 months
Impulsivity
A single measure computed as the average of scores on continuous youth- and parent-report scales (Hay \& Meldrum, 2010) after each score has been standardized to mean of 0 and standard deviation of 1.
Time frame: 18 months
Conventional values
Belief in the Moral Order scale of the Communities That Care Youth Survey (Arthur et al., 2002)
Time frame: 18 months
Aggressive behavior
A single measure computed as the average of scores on youth-report Aggression Scale (Orpinas \& Frankowski, 2001) and parent-report Parent's Checklist from the Fast Track Project: https://fasttrackproject.org/techrept/p/pcl/ after each score has been standardized to mean of 0 and standard deviation of 1.
Time frame: 18 months
Academic success
4-item measure of grades in core subjects (Herrera et al., 2013)
Time frame: 18 months
Positive parenting
Parent-report Positive Parenting subscale from the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (Essau et al., 2006)
Time frame: 18 months
Parent involvement
Parent-report Involvement subscale from the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (Essau et al., 2006)
Time frame: 18 months
Parental monitoring and supervision
Parent-report Poor Monitoring/Supervision subscale from the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (Essau et al., 2006)
Time frame: 18 months
Parental consistent discipline
Parent-report Inconsistent Discipline subscale from the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (Essau et al., 2006)
Time frame: 18 months
Family relationships
Parent-report General Functioning scale of the Family Assessment Device (Epstein et al., 1983)
Time frame: 18 months
Perceived social support from family members
Youth-report Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet et al., 1988): Family Members subscale
Time frame: 18 months
Perceived social support from peers
Youth-report Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet et al., 1988): Peers subscale
Time frame: 18 months
Perceived social support from special person
Youth-report Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet et al., 1988): Significant Others subscale
Time frame: 18 months
School engagement
Youth-report Behavioral Engagement subscale of the Engagement versus Disaffection with Learning Scale (Skinner et al., 2009)
Time frame: 18 months
Goal-setting and pursuit
Parent-report Goal Orientation scale from Child Trends: https://www.childtrends.org/research/research-by-topic/positive-indicators-project/goal-orientation/
Time frame: 18 months
Involvement in out-of-school-time activities
Parent-report (Herrera et al., 2007)
Time frame: 18 months
Volunteering in the community
Youth-report single-item (Herrera et al., 2013)
Time frame: 18 months
Life satisfaction
Youth-report single-item measure from WHO's 2005-06 Health Behaviors in School Age Children Survey: http://filer.uib.no/psyfa/HEMIL-senteret/HBSC/2006\_Mandatory\_Questionnaire.pdf
Time frame: 18 months
Self-esteem
Youth-report Global Self-Esteem subscale of brief version of the Self-Esteem Questionnaire (DuBois et al., 1996; Silverthorn et al., 2017)
Time frame: 18 months
Happiness
Youth-report Positive Affect Pediatric Self-Report - Short Form from the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) (Forrest et al., 2017)
Time frame: 18 months
Grit
Youth-report Grit Scale for Children (Duckworth \& Quinn, 2009)
Time frame: 18 months
Social competence
Social Competencies Scale of the Youth Outcome Measures Online Toolbox (Muris, 2001)
Time frame: 18 months
Special interest development
Youth-report (adapted from DuBois \& Keller, 2017)
Time frame: 18 months
Hopeful future expectations
Youth-report abbreviated version of the Hopeful Future Expectations Scale (Bowers et al., 2012)
Time frame: 18 months
Career exploration
Youth-report 2 items (adapted from Herrera et al., 2011)
Time frame: 18 months
College exploration
Youth-report 1 item (adapted from Herrera et al., 2011)
Time frame: 18 months
Self-advocacy
Youth-report (Jarjoura et al., 2017)
Time frame: 18 months
Coping efficacy
Youth-report 1 item adapted from Coping Efficacy Scale (Sandler et al., 2000)
Time frame: 18 months
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