Preventing Dropout Among Latino Youth: Results From a Randomized Controlled Trial

Research has shown that school-based prevention programs can prevent dropout. Few studies have investigated high school-based programs and their intervening processes. The current study examined the impact of Peer Group Connection (PGC) on students’ high school graduation.  This study also examined school belonging as a mediator and acculturation as a moderator of potential program effects. In 2005, 268 students (92% Latino) were randomized to the control (n = 175) or program (n = 93) condition. Trained upperclassmen delivered weekly forty-minute, manualized, group sessions to ninth grade students. Latent growth curve analysis, using baseline, post-test, one-year follow-up, and two-year follow-up data, showed that the intervention condition interacted with acculturation, such that  PGC participants who were more acculturated were more likely to graduate than were similar control group participants (84.6% vs. 60.3%, respectively; pseudo R-square = 10%).   Thus, there is evidence that PGC benefited the Latino students who were most at risk for drop-out—those who were most acculturated.