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“Early starters” are children who begin displaying conduct problems in early to middle childhood and continue on this trajectory into adulthood. Evidence suggests that early-onset conduct problems are associated with peer rejection, low quality friendships, less interpersonal skill, and school difficulties. Although, psychosocial interventions designed specifically for these “early starters” are generally supported by the empirical literature, a substantial proportion of children do not respond to treatment or treatment gains are reduced at follow-up assessment.
Youth mentoring is often touted as a useful prevention tool (Dortch, 2000), but meta-analytic studies reveal modest benefits when programs are evaluated systematically (see Dubois et al., 2011). Lunch Buddy (LB) mentoring is a simple yet innovative SBM intervention that involves regular lunchtime visits from a college student mentor (Hughes, Cavell et al., 2001; Hughes et al., 2005). Created originally as a control condition, LB mentoring was found to have unexpected benefits for aggressive, school age children in an earlier RCT. In this study, mentors were trained to enhance children’s interactions with peers, promote prosocial behaviors, and alter peer-mediated contingencies that maintain aggressive behavior. The goal of this study is to test whether LB mentoring can lead to improvements in aggressive children’s social and school adjustment at post-intervention and at 6-month follow-up using a cluster-randomized design.
Method
Participants are 55 2nd- 4th grade children (28 intervention; 27 control) from 8 elementary schools. Teachers nominated children who met a behavioral description of an aggressive child. Recruited into the study were children for whom we had parental consent (n = 64) and who scored > 60 T on the aggressive subscale of the TRF or CBCL (Achenbach, 1991). Eligible children (n = 55; 32 boys) were randomized to conditions.
Measures
Social acceptance (e.g. peer acceptance, reciprocated friendships) was assessed through a peer nomination procedure. Self- and teacher-reports of loneliness was assessed via the Loneliness and Social Dissatisfaction Questionnaire (Cassidy & Asher, 1992). Social competence was assessed via a modified self-report version of the Self-Perception Profile for Children (Harter, 1985). Sense of school belonging was assessed via the Psychological Sense of School Membership scale (Goodenow, 1993). Teacher-student relationship quality was assessed via child and teacher reports on the Network of Relationships Inventory (Buhrmester & Furman, 1987) and through a peer nomination procedure.
Data Analytic Plan
A regression framework will be used to examine the effects of LB Mentoring on measures of social adjustment and school connectedness. Treatment assignment will be dummy coded as 1 (treatment) or 0 (control) and analyses will control for time 1 scores, and demographic characteristics.