Empowering Youth With School Discipline Referrals as Peer Coaches
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: Peer Coach Training (PCT), Delayed control.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Disruptive Behavior. Basic parameters: 10 years — 15 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- United States
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
Unsure about the terms? Read our patient guide →
Overview
The study will examine the effects of Peer Coach Training (PCT), a strengths-based behavioral intervention for discipline-referred middle-school youth who might benefit when trained to act as change agents for their peers. Successful completion of this study will provide support for implementing PCT in school communities to empower youth in prosocial peer engagement.
Detailed description
In this proposal, the investigators evaluate the effects of PCT, an approach that deemphasizes existing problems and focuses instead on training youth to help their peers.
In urban public school districts across the US, exclusionary discipline (e.g., suspension and expulsion) disproportionally affects Black and Latinx youth. Although many school-based interventions are promising, they overlook the motivational potential of helping others and fail to build on the culturally grounded prosocial orientation of Black and Latinx students. This study evaluates the effectiveness of Peer Coach Training (PCT), a strengths-based intervention that deemphasizes existing problems and focuses instead on empowering youth to help their peers. A cluster randomized trial will be conducted across ten middle schools (n=150 youth), with schools randomized to either PCT or control (i.e., delayed treatment). Youth referred for disruptive behavior at intervention schools will receive PCT immediately, whereas youth at control schools will receive PCT nine months later. Outcomes related to disruptive and prosocial behavior, school engagement, and empowerment will be assessed at baseline, post-intervention, and follow-up. Successful completion of this trial will not only provide support for implementing PCT in school communities to empower youth prosocially, but also potentially validate an approach to reducing discipline disparities within school contexts.
Interventions
- Behavioral Peer Coach Training (PCT)
Six to seven session strengths-based behavioral intervention focusing on skills development and help-giving practices - Behavioral Delayed control
Services offered by middle schools for students according to their standard practice of care. These youth will then receive PCT after completion of follow-up assessments.
Primary outcome measures
- Behavioral Problem Checklist [Time frame: Baseline assessment, 3 months after baseline assessment, 8 months after baseline assessment]
- Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire [Time frame: Baseline assessment, 3 months after baseline assessment, 8 months after baseline assessment]
- Teacher Disruptive Behavior Disorders Rating Scale [Time frame: Baseline assessment, 3 months after baseline assessment, 8 months after baseline assessment]
- School archival data of youth behavior and discipline [Time frame: Baseline assessment, 3 months after baseline assessment, 8 months after baseline assessment]
Secondary outcome measures (11)
- Engagement versus disaffection with learning - student report [Time frame: Baseline assessment, 3 months after baseline assessment, 8 months after baseline assessment]
- MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status - Youth Version [Time frame: Baseline assessment, 3 months after baseline assessment, 8 months after baseline assessmentMacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status - Youth Version]
- Moral Identity Internalization Scale [Time frame: Baseline assessment, 3 months after baseline assessment, 8 months after baseline assessment]
- Personal Efficacy Scale [Time frame: Baseline assessment, 3 months after baseline assessment, 8 months after baseline assessment]
- Psychological Empowerment Indices - Youth School Belonging and Identification [Time frame: Baseline assessment, 3 months after baseline assessment, 8 months after baseline assessment]
- Wentzel Prosocial Peer Goals and Compliance Goals Scales [Time frame: Baseline assessment, 3 months after baseline assessment, 8 months after baseline assessment]
- Esbensen Gang Involvement Scale [Time frame: Baseline assessment, 3 months after baseline assessment, 8 months after baseline assessment]
- Possible selves survey [Time frame: Baseline assessment, 3 months after baseline assessment, 8 months after baseline assessment]
- Behavioral Problem Checklist - Youth Peer Assessment [Time frame: Baseline assessment, 3 months after baseline assessment, 8 months after baseline assessment]
- Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale (Social Network Interview) [Time frame: Baseline assessment, 3 months after baseline assessment, 8 months after baseline assessment]
- Teacher Construals Indices [Time frame: Baseline assessment, 3 months after baseline assessment, 8 months after baseline assessment]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
- Youth who have received at least one disciplinary referral between the first day of school and recruitment
Exclusion criteria
- Youth who have not received any disciplinary referrals between the first day of school and recruitment
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: No
Study design
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Model
- Parallel assignment
- Masking
- Single blind
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
Study locations
United States · 1 center
- University of Southern California — Los Angeles
Identifiers
NCT: NCT07515742 · UP-25-00414 · MG-203910