Research

Follow-Up to a Multisite Randomized Controlled Trial of The Friends of the Children Program

A sample of almost 300 children and their primary caregivers from Boston, New York City, Portland and Seattle were recruited to participate in an RCT of the Friends of the Children (FOTC) program. Working in partnership with elementary schools, FOTC identifies children in kindergarten as appropriate for their program and then connects with caregivers and promises to provide a mentor to their child until the age of 18 years. Data were collected each year for the first 5 years of program delivery. The work was funded by the NIH through NICHD, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, and the OJJDP. Mark Eddy was the principal investigator.

A continuation of this project was recently funded by NIH through the NICHD. In this next phase of the work, assessments are being conducted with participants at age 19 and age 20 years, and with one of their caregivers. A sample of participants are also being interviewed using qualitative methods. J. Mark Eddy is serving as a co-principal investigator on this new round of work along with Martie Skinner and Kevin Haggerty of the University of Washington. Data collection is ongoing.

A Natural Experiment of Permanent Supportive Housing for Men and Women Releasing from State Prison

Finding safe, secure and stable housing after release from prison is quite difficult. There are a number of programs available around the country that provide short-term transitional housing, but few that offer permanent housing. The living situation of an ex-offender makes all the difference in success on the outside. Recently, a new housing complex for former prisoners, The Oaks, was built in Eugene, Oregon through funding from HUD. The complex is managed by the non-profit Sponsors, Inc., a transitional housing program.

After the completion of The Oaks, Sponsors partnered with Homes for Good, the local county housing authority, to double the set-aside of housing stock for former prisoners. Sponsors and Homes for Good then partnered with Third Sector Capital Partners to launch a social impact bond project to support a “permanent supportive housing” initiative. Through funding from HUD, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission, a natural experiment (N = 250) is being conducted to study the impacts of permanent supportive housing on ex-offenders. J. Mark Eddy is the principal investigator. Jean Kjellstrand from the University of Oregon is the primary co-investigator. Data collection is ongoing.

Testing the Efficacy of a School-based Youth Violence Preventive Intervention in a High Risk International Context

This project, funded by the NIH through NICHD, is an RCT of the Miles de Manos (MdM) curriculum in Honduras designed to evaluate program impacts on youth violence. The development of MdM was funded by the German government through the GIZ. MdM is a multi-modal, universal, primary school-based prevention intervention that is delivered to parents and teachers. It was created by an international team of researchers and practitioners and has been adopted by the Honduran Secretary of Education as part of its national education plan. The Honduran Ministry of Education is collaborating in this work. Charles R. Martinez, Jr. and J. Mark Eddy are the co-principal investigators. Heather McClure of the University of Oregon, Erin Rodriguez of The University of Texas at Austin, and Janella Nelson of ChildFund International are co-investigators. Data collection is ongoing.

Social-Emotional Skill-Building Continuity between School and Home: Developing Second Step-Parents

This project, funded by the US DOE through IES, is a materials development and testing project. Children’s social and emotional learning (SEL) skills are a robust predictor of their academic, social/emotional and behavioral adjustment. In several randomized controlled trials, the universal preventive elementary school-based intervention Second Step, has demonstrated efficacy and effectiveness at improving children’s social skills and reducing problem behaviors. Effects sizes are typically small to medium.

When delivered at scale, even modest effects in universal programs can make a large impact on population health. Of course, given the costs of delivering programs at scale, maximizing intervention effects is optimal to have the greatest impact on the children served. By taking a universal public health approach, we can positively shift the needle on the SEL climate within classrooms, schools and the larger environment such that even families who do not directly interact with the intervention receive benefit via the enhanced environmental climate.

One strategy for increasing the impact of interventions is to increase the intervention dose, either by adding intervention components, addressing more social agents relevant to the target, and/or by increasing component duration or intensity. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, while most elementary-age children were in school a large proportion of most days during the academic year, they also spent a substantial amount of time with their parents/caregivers. In the context of the pandemic, because many children are learning remotely and are with their parents most of the time, parents’ role in all types of learning, including SEL, has increased significantly. In addition, because children have had limited peer interaction, their SEL development related to peer interactions may be delayed and in need of additional supports.

Given these considerations, parents are influential figures with the potential to increase intervention dose and SEL skill generalization by providing Second Step content in the home. By focusing solely on the school context with SEL delivery, preventionists are neglecting a key and primary influence on children’s development. The non-profit organization Committee for Children, the developer of Second Step, has developed “light touch” materials for parents, called Home Links, to be used in conjunction with Second Step. In principle, these materials are intended to leverage home-based delivery mechanisms. In practice, Home Links materials are rarely provided to parents by teachers, and if they do reach parents, they are rarely used.

To increase the impact of the Second Step program on child SEL skills, especially in post-pandemic times, there is a pressing need for the development of engaging, easily understood, easily disseminated and effective Second Step parent materials. The fundamental purpose of the parent component we propose to develop is three-fold:

increasing teacher dissemination of, and greater parent access to and use of, program content;
increasing parents’ knowledge of Second Step activities and children’s SEL and
increasing parents’ use of behaviors that can strengthen the SEL skills that their children are learning through Second Step.

School districts around the U.S. are collaborating in this work. Kim Rhoades of New York University and J. Mark Eddy are co-principal investigators for this work. Alison Drew and Amy Smith Slep of New York University and Tia Kim of the Committee for Children (Seattle) are co-investigators. Data collection is ongoing.

Development and Pilot Testing of Latino Education After Public Schools (LEAPS)

Latinos are one of the US racial/ethnic groups with the lowest levels of educational attainment. At the same time, Latino parents perceive education as vital to their children’s future. Although most Latino adolescents identify postsecondary education as important, many do not pursue it due to limited knowledge and confidence about their readiness. LEAPS is designed to intervene simultaneously with Latino parents, their students, and school counselors and teachers who can play a critical role in preparing the whole family for a student’s postsecondary success.

Employing a rigorous scientific process, the IES-funded LEAPS Project is developing curricula to directly target key parent, student, and educator behaviors related to Latino student academic success and college readiness. Through our intervention sessions and a Campus Academy, LEAPS aims to help parents and students prepare for a student’s postsecondary education and completion. Collaborating school districts are the Austin Independent School District and the Del Valley Independent School District. Charles R. Martinez, Jr., is the principal investigator. J. Mark Eddy as well as Heather McClure of the University of Oregon are co-investigators. Data collection is ongoing.

A Randomized Controlled Trial of PeaceRox

PeaceRox is a psychosocial intervention for high school students who have been having difficulty in terms of their behavior at school and who have a record of misbehavior. This study, funded by Arnold Ventures, is a randomized controlled trial of PeaceRox as it is delivered in high schools. Collaborating school districts are the Austin Independent School District and the Del Valley Independent School District. Becky Pettit is the principal investigator. J. Mark Eddy is a co-investigator in this work along with a variety of other partners. Data collection is ongoing.