This pilot community-partnered cluster-randomized trial will examine the feasibility and acceptability of a social network-based youth violence prevention program called Strengthening Connections for Change for youth ages 13-17 and their key adult supports.
This pilot community-partnered cluster-randomized trial will examine the feasibility and acceptability of a social network-based youth violence prevention program called Strengthening Connections for Change for youth ages 13-17 and their key adult supports. Set in four lower resource Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania neighborhoods, this study brings together youth ages 13-17 and their self-identified key adult supports to focus on leadership, strengthening intergenerational networks, community engagement, and violence prevention.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
74
Strengthening Connections for Change is a 12-session curriculum designed to strengthen adolescent-adult support networks, build leadership skills, foster community engagement, and challenge attitudes and behaviors that foster violence involvement. During the program, youth ages 13-17 years invite their self-identified key adult supports to jointly participate in programming including youth-focused, adult-focused and jointly focused activities. Towards the end of programming participants design and carry out a community project to strengthen intergenerational connections and promote community engagement.
Job Readiness Training uses a group discussion format to learn specific skills to prepare for employment including developing goals, seeking jobs, preparing for interviews, and so forth.
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Participant Attendance
Attendance recorded at beginning and end of each session. Calculated as a proportion of total number of sessions attended (possible session attended #: 0-12 for youth participants and 0-9 for adult participants) using the following method (# youth at session 1 + # youth at session 2 + …)/(# of youth participants x12 sessions) and (# adults at session 1 + # adults at session 2 + …)/(# of adult participants x9 sessions). The possible proportion attended ranges from 0-1.
Time frame: through intervention completion, 12 weeks
Participant Overall Satisfaction With Curriculum Content and Format Assessed by Researcher-generated Likert-scale Items
At the end of the program, participants will be asked about how satisfied they were overall with the topics discussed and format of the program using 5-point Likert scale items. Means score will be calculated across the items (possible range: 1-5; higher score means higher satisfaction). This data was collected for the Strengthening Connections for change intervention groups only.
Time frame: end of program (12 weeks)
Participant Satisfaction With Weekly Session Content Assessed by Researcher-generated Likert-scale Items
At the end of each of the 12 sessions, participants will be asked about how satisfied they were with the topics discussed for that session using 5-point Likert scale items. A mean score will be calculated by taking the average of the responses on session forms completed by each youth across all time points (i.e., Session 1 Mean Score + Session 2 Mean Score + Session 3 Mean score +.../ 12 sessions) (possible range: 1-5; higher score means higher satisfaction). This data was collected for the Strengthening Connections for change intervention groups only.
Time frame: end of program (12 weeks)
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