TEEN OUTREACH PROGRAM (TOP)
OVERVIEW
The Teen Outreach Program is designed to prevent adolescent problem behaviors by enhancing normative processes of social development. The program seeks to engage young people in a high level of structured, volunteer community service that is closely linked to classroom-based discussions of future life options, such as those surrounding future career and relationship decisions. A large-scale random assignment study of the program’s effectiveness compared students assigned to participate in the Teen Outreach Program with students assigned to a control group. By the end of the one year intervention period, Teen Outreach students were significantly less likely than control students to have failed a course, been suspended from school, or gotten pregnant. A second, smaller experimental evaluation attained similar results.
DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM
Target population: teenagers
Students involved with the Teen Outreach Program select volunteer activities under the supervision of trained staff and adult volunteers. Activities are selected to meet the needs and capacities of participants and the local community. These activities provide participants with opportunities to be viewed in a positive role by adults and peers and with the chance to develop feelings competence and autonomy.
The Teen Outreach curriculum is designed to engage students via structured discussions, group exercises, role plays, guest speakers, and informational presentations. Discussions and activities focused on maximizing learning from the service experiences and on helping teens cope with important developmental tasks (including understanding self and personal values, life skills, dealing with family stress, human growth and development, and issues related to social and emotional transitions from adolescence to adulthood).
Though the Teen Outreach Program seeks to prevent problem behaviors, notably teen pregnancy and school failure, the program places very little direct emphasis on these two behaviors. Material about sexuality comprises less than 15% of the Teen Outreach curriculum and this potion of the curriculum is often not used when it overlaps with material being offered in local schools or conflicts with prevailing community values.
The Teen Outreach Program can be offered for a full academic year to a class of 18-25 students for approximately $500-$700 per student, according to a 1997 paper.
EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM
Allen, J. P., Philliber, S., Herrling, S., & Kuperminc, G. P. (1997). Preventing Teen Pregnancy and Academic Failure: Experimental Evaluation of a Developmentally Based Approach. Child Development, 64(4), 729-742.
Evaluated population: 695 high school students served as the study sample for this investigation. Subjects were drawn from 25 sites nationwide between the years of 1991 and 1995. The majority of subjects (85%) were female. 67% of subjects were black, 19% were white, 11% were Hispanic, and 3% were of other ethnicities. Less than half of the subjects lived in a two-parent household.
Approach: All sites known to be running the Teen Outreach Program were contacted and asked to participate in an experimental study of the program’s effectiveness. Approximately 10% of extant sites agreed to take part in the evaluation.
At each participating site, random assignment took place in order to create a Teen Outreach group and a control group. (At most sites, assignment was at the level of the student. At some sites, assignment was at the level of the classroom.) Students assigned to the Teen Outreach group were offered the Teen Outreach Program. Students assigned to the control group were not.
Teen Outreach Programs were led by trained facilitators, who were often school teachers or guidance personnel. Teen Outreach sessions met at least once weekly for the duration of an academic year. On average, students assigned to the Teen Outreach group took part in 45.8 hours of volunteer service over the course of the intervention.
All subjects completed questionnaires at the beginning of the intervention period, typically in late August or early September. Subjects completed follow-up questionnaires at the end of the intervention period, typically in May or June. Questionnaires assessed subjects’ problem behaviors, including teenage pregnancy and school failure.
In spite of the fact that treatment and control groups were formed via random assignment, significant differences were found between the two groups at baseline. Specifically, control students reported higher levels of prior course failure, school suspension, and teen pregnancy than did Teen Outreach students. In an attempt to prevent these baseline differences from creating misleading results, three program sites were dropped from analyses. One site was dropped because its control subjects were significantly more problematic than its treatment subjects and two sites were dropped because they had made insufficient efforts to attain follow-up data from their control subjects. Multiple analyses, including analyses that examined all sites, gave no indication that results were related to the fact that control students were more problematic than treatment students at baseline.
Results: During the intervention period, Teen Outreach students were significantly less likely than control students to have failed a course, been suspended from school, or gotten pregnant. After accounting for baseline variables, the risk of school suspension in the Teen Outreach group was found to be only 42% of the size of the risk of school suspension in the control group. Further, the risk of course failure for Teen Outreach students was only 39% of the risk for control students and the risk of teen pregnancy for Teen Outreach students was only 41% of the risk for control students.
Philliber, S. & Allen, J. P. (1992). Life Options and Community Service: Teen Outreach
Program. In B. C. Miller, J. J. Card, L. Paikoff,
& J. L. Peterson (Eds.), Preventing
adolescent pregnancy: Model programs and evaluation (pp. 139-155).
Evaluated population: 168 middle school and high school students served as the study sample for this investigation. Subjects were drawn from five sites nationwide during the 1988-89 school year.
Approach: Subjects were randomly assigned to the Teen Outreach group or the control group. Students assigned to the Teen Outreach group were offered the Teen Outreach Program. Students assigned to the control group were not.
All subjects completed questionnaires at the beginning of the intervention period, typically in late August or early September. Subjects completed follow-up questionnaires at the end of the intervention period, typically in May or June. Questionnaires assessed subjects’ problem behaviors as well as their positive behaviors.
Results: During the intervention period, Teen Outreach students were significantly less likely than control students to have failed a course or to have been suspended from school. Fewer Teen Outreach students than control students dropped out of school or became pregnant; however, the study sample was too small to permit analyses on these outcomes.
Note: Analyses were not designed to adjust for the effect of clustering within schools.
SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION
For more information, contact:
Claire L. Wyneken
Senior Vice President, Wyman Institute for Teen Development
600 Kiwanis Drive
Eureka, MO 63025
(T) (636) 549-1236
(F) (636) 938-5289
Claire.Wyneken@wymancenter.org
References:
Allen, J. P., Philliber, S., Herrling, S., & Kuperminc, G. P. (1997). Preventing Teen Pregnancy and Academic Failure: Experimental Evaluation of a Developmentally Based Approach. Child Development, 64(4), 729-742.
Philliber, S. & Allen, J. P. (1992).
Life Options and Community Service: Teen Outreach Program. In B.
C. Miller, J. J. Card, L. Paikoff, & J. L.
Peterson (Eds.), Preventing adolescent
pregnancy: Model programs and evaluation (pp. 139-155).
Program also discussed in the
following Child Trends publications:
Manlove,
J., Terry-Humen, E., Romano Papillo,
A., Franzetta, K., Williams, S., & Ryan, S.
(2002). Preventing teenage pregnancy, childbearing, and sexually transmitted
diseases: What the research shows (Research brief). Washington
, DC : Child Trends.
Manlove, J., Terry-Humen, E.,
Romano Papillo, A., Franzetta,
K., Williams, S., & Ryan, S. (2001). Background for community-level work
on positive reproductive health in adolescence: Reviewing the literature on
contributing factors. Washington, DC: Child Trends.
Redd, Z., Brooks, J., & McGarvey, A. (2002). Educating America 's youth: What makes a difference
(Research brief). Washington , DC : Child Trends.
Program categorized in this guide according to the following:
Evaluated participant ages: 14-18
Evaluated participant grades: 9th-12th
Program age ranges in the guide: Adolescence, Youth
Program components: School-Based, Clinic/Provider-Based, Service Learning
Measured outcomes: Problem Behaviors, Reproductive Health
KEYWORDS: Adolescence (12-17), Youth (16+), High School, Middle School, School-based, Black or African American, White or Caucasian, Hispanic or Latino, Mentoring, Service Learning, Reproductive Health, Teen Pregnancy, Behavioral Problems, Delinquency, Civic Engagement, Community Service, Education, School Engagement, Academic Achievement
Program information last updated on 8/2/10.
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