Girls Circle and The Council for Boys and Young Men in Schools: Evaluation of Two Gender-Specific Support Groups
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Date
2020-12-08
Authors
Kintner, Cady
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Although there is evidence in support of gender-specific developmental trajectories for adolescent risk and protective factors, less is known about the efficacy of gender-specific interventions applied in educational contexts. Girls Circle and The Council for Boys and Young Men are widely implemented gender-specific support groups for youth ages nine to 18 that incorporate elements of relational-cultural theory, resiliency practices, and motivational interviewing into weekly closed group sessions that can be conducted during the school day. The present study is a program evaluation of these interventions that was designed in partnership with program founders, public school personnel, and the local juvenile department in a Pacific Northwest county. At the beginning of the 2015-2016 academic year, 309 (138 male, 171 female) students ages 11-19 in six schools that were already implementing Girls Circle and/or The Council were randomized to either receive the intervention in Fall term (intervention condition), Spring term (wait-list control condition), or services as usual (control condition). Participants completed surveys at the beginning of the school year, 12-15 weeks later, and again at the end of the school year (approximately nine months after baseline). Fidelity measures, attendance logs, and school records information were also collected. The study’s aims were to: (a) assess the extent to which process components (adherence, dosage, and quality of program delivery) were achieved, and (b) examine potential intervention effects on outcome variables targeted by the interventions (self-efficacy, prosocial behavior, perceived social support, body image, and school engagement). Overall, Girls Circle and The Council were both implemented with good adherence, dosage, and quality. Latent growth modeling revealed mostly null effects for the intervention outcomes as measured over the course of one academic year, with the exception of boys in The Council waitlist-control condition showing faster growth in self-efficacy than participants in other conditions. ANCOVA models assessing intervention effects for school engagement also revealed null effects for intervention. Post-hoc analyses examining potential dosage effects did not change the pattern of results. Implications for school-based implementation of these programs are discussed.
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Keywords
adolescence, gender-specific, Girls Circle, school-based intervention, The Council