Testing the Effectiveness of Integrating Relationship Education Into an Existing Workforce Readiness Program

Family Relations Clinical Trial

Official title:

Testing the Effectiveness of Integrating Relationship Education Into an Existing Workforce Readiness Program

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT02829411
• Other study ID #: MPR-500098-FWCA
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: August 2016
• Est. completion date: December 2020

Study information

• Verified date: March 2021
• Source: Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The project will test the strategy of integrating 25 hours of relationship education into an existing employment program for low-income individuals ages 18-30. It will use a 2-arm randomized controlled trial to test the effect of this full package of services on participants' employment outcomes and relationship outcomes.

Description:

The study will examine the programming by FWCA, which currently offers the Career Pathways Bridge program in three locations in St. Louis County in Missouri. The evaluation will test the strategy of integrating relationship education into an existing workforce readiness program. FWCA plans to add approximately 17 hours of content from the Within My Reach relationship education curriculum to the two-week job readiness workshop it offers as part of the Career Pathways Bridge program. Second, FWCA will add up to eight additional one-hour relationship skills education sessions that customers can attend in the five weeks after completing the initial two-week job readiness workshop.

The evaluation will use a 2-arm randomized controlled trial to test the effect of this full package of services on participants' employment outcomes and relationship outcomes. The target population will be low-income individuals ages 18-30 living in St. Louis County, Missouri. The study will aim to enroll 1000 individuals over 2 years. The Metropolitan Employment and Training (MET) Center will be the primary recruitment and service location.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 909
• Est. completion date: December 2020
• Est. primary completion date: December 2018
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 30 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• disconnected from workforce

Exclusion Criteria:

-

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Family Relations
• Marriage

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Workforce Readiness Program
job readiness workshops, organized into ten daily sessions over two weeks.
• Relationship education
25-hours of "Within My Reach" curriculum and relationship skills education sessions

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	FWCA	Saint Louis	Missouri

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.	Department of Health and Human Services

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Perceived romantic relationship skills	Six-item scale (a = 0.84) equal to the average level of agreement-from "strongly disagree" (= 1) to "strongly agree" (= 4)-with 6 statements.	1 year after random assignment
Primary	Perceived conflict management skills	Five-item scale (a = 0.77) equal to the average self-assessment-from "I am bad at this" (= 1) to "I am extremely good at this" (= 4)-of 5 skills.	1 year after random assignment
Primary	Support for going slow in romantic relationships	Single-item scale equal to the level of agreement-from "strongly disagree" (= 1) to "strongly agree" (= 4)-with the following statement: "People are more likely to succeed in their relationships if they take things slowly."	1 year after random assignment
Primary	Disapproval of couple violence	Five-item scale (a = 0.77) equal to the average level of disagreement-from "strongly agree" (= 1) to "strongly disagree" (= 4)-with 5 statements.	1 year after random assignment
Primary	Any exposure to psychological abuse	Binary variable equal to 1 if the respondent indicates that a romantic partner has done any of the following in the past year: Try to keep you from seeing or talking with your friends; Make you feel stupid; Keep money from you or take your money without asking; Made you feel afraid that they might hurt you	1 year after random assignment
Primary	Any exposure to physical abuse	Binary variable equal to 1 if the respondent indicates that a romantic partner has done any of the following in the past year: Push, shove, or slap you; Punch or kick you or beat you up	1 year after random assignment
Primary	Any perpetration of physical abuse	Binary variable equal to 1 if the respondent indicates that they did any of the following to a romantic partner in the past year: Pushed, shoved, or slapped them; Punched, kicked, or beat them up	1 year after random assignment
Primary	Involved in an unsteady relationship	Binary variable equal to 1 if the respondent reports being involved in an on-again/off-again relationship at the time of the follow-up survey and equal to 0 if the respondent reports being married, engaged, romantically involved on a steady basis, or not in a romantic relationship at the time of the follow-up survey.	1 year after random assignment
Primary	Had an unintended pregnancy	Binary variable equal to 1 if the respondent reports that they had been/gotten someone pregnant since study enrollment and that they did not want to be/get someone pregnant or the pregnancy came sooner than intended.	1 year after random assignment
Primary	Employed or training to improve job prospects	Binary variable equal to 1 if the respondent was employed, participating in a job training program, or enrolled in school at the time of the follow-up survey.	1 year after random assignment
Primary	Monthly earnings, administrative records	Continuous variable constructed from NDNH data that is created by summing quarterly earnings across the four quarters following random assignment and dividing by 12.	1 year after random assignment
Primary	Monthly earnings, survey report	Continuous variable constructed from survey data that is based on average monthly earnings from all jobs in the first year following study enrollment.	1 year after random assignment
Primary	Better off financially now	Binary variable equal to 1 if the respondent feels better off financially now than a year ago.	1 year after random assignment
Primary	Economic hardship	Continuous variable that represents how many of the following six economic hardships the respondent experienced since study enrollment	1 year after random assignment