Evaluation of a Youth Mentoring Program

Self Concept Clinical Trial

Official title:

Development and Evaluation of a Youth Mentoring Program

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT00158353
• Other study ID #: 2003-0689
• Secondary ID: R21MH069564DSIR
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: May 2005
• Est. completion date: July 7, 2016

Study information

• Verified date: May 2020
• Source: University of Illinois at Chicago
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This study will be used to determine the effectiveness of GirlPOWER!, an innovative mentoring program for adolescent minority girls living in urban areas.

Description:

The potential benefits of adolescent mentoring programs cannot be overemphasized. Mentoring may be especially beneficial to urban-living, minority adolescents who may lack role models. The Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) organization administers a widely-praised and empirically-supported program that is committed to building successful mentoring relationships between adolescents and adults in their community. In collaboration with the BBBS affiliate agency in Chicago, the PI has developed an intervention called GirlPOWER! GirlPOWER! combines mentoring with self-esteem enhancement and health education and promotion strategies. This study will determine the effectiveness of the GirlPOWER! intervention and determine its feasibility in being applied to other populations.

Participants will be randomly assigned to receive either the GirlPOWER! intervention or traditional mentoring through BBBS and followed for 1 year. Participants in the GirlPOWER! group and their mentors will engage in structured activities that focus on strengthening the mentoring relationship, promoting self-esteem, reducing levels of health-compromising behaviors such as substance use and violence, and increasing levels of health-enhancing behaviors. Traditional mentoring comprises less structured activities and typically includes general discussion of an adolescent's day-to-day life and any accomplishments and challenges he or she may have experienced. Participants will be assessed at study entry, 3 months following entry, and at the end of one year. Assessments will include surveys completed by youth as well as their parents, mentors, and teachers; academic data also will be obtained from school records.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 40
• Est. completion date: July 7, 2016
• Est. primary completion date: December 2007
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: Female
• Age group: 10 Years to 13 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Live in Chicago, Illinois Metropolitan area

• Parent or guardian willing to provide informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

-Significant cognitive limitations or behavioral concerns that would preclude ability to participate appropriately in the intervention

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Self Concept

Intervention

Behavioral:
• GirlPOWER! mentoring program
GirlPOWER! mentoring program includes monthly 3-hour workshops for youth and mentors combined with monthly supplemental activities to be completed independently by youth-mentor pairs.
• Traditional mentoring
Traditional mentoring includes a community-based mentoring program, in which the youth-mentor spends time together in activities of their choosing 2 to 4 times a month.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	University of Illinois at Chicago	Chicago	Illinois

Sponsors (3)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Illinois at Chicago	Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

References & Publications (5)

DuBois DL, Holloway BE, Valentine JC, Cooper H. Effectiveness of mentoring programs for youth: a meta-analytic review. Am J Community Psychol. 2002 Apr;30(2):157-97. — View Citation

DuBois, D. L., Silverthorn, N., Pryce, J., Reeves, E., Sanchez, B., Silva, A., Ansu, A. A., Haqq, S., & Takehara, J. (in press). Mentorship: The GirlPOWER! program. To appear in C. W. Leroy & J. E. Mann (Eds.), Handbook of preventive and intervention programs for adolescent girls. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Keller TE, Overton B, Pryce JM, Barry JE, Sutherland A, DuBois DL. "I really wanted her to have a Big Sister": Caregiver perspectives on mentoring for early adolescent girls. Child Youth Serv Rev. 2018 May;88:308-315. doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.03.029. Epub 2018 Mar 19. — View Citation

Pryce JM, Silverthorn N, Sanchez B, DuBois DL. GirlPOWER! Strengthening mentoring relationships through a structured, gender-specific program. New Dir Youth Dev. 2010 Summer;2010(126):89-105. doi: 10.1002/yd.351. — View Citation

Sánchez B, Pryce J, Silverthorn N, Deane KL, DuBois DL. Do mentor support for ethnic-racial identity and mentee cultural mistrust matter for girls of color? A preliminary investigation. Cultur Divers Ethnic Minor Psychol. 2019 Oct;25(4):505-514. doi: 10.1 — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Mental health	Composite measure that is the average of T-scores for Internalizing and Externalizing scales of the Youth Self-Report and Child Behavior Checklist of the Achenbach System of Empirically-Based Assessment	Measured at Year 1
Primary	Health behaviors	Composite (average) of standardized (M=0, SD=1) scores on measures of exercise (3 items), healthy eating (10 items), unhealthy weight loss behaviors (reverse-weighted) (3 items) and substance use (reverse-weighted) (5 items) from the CDC Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System	Measured at Year 1
Secondary	Social support	Composite (average) of Friend, Family, and Very Important Adults subscales of the Perceived Support Scale-Revised, with Very Important Adults scored 0 for those reporting no very important adults.	Measured at Year 1
Secondary	Academic achievement	Composite of averages of grades reported in core subject area classes (Language Arts, Math,Science, Social Studies) by youth and parent	Measured at Year 1

External Links

•   Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
•   Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago
•   MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership