WITHDRAWN: Promoting Positive Youth Development through School-Based Mentoring: A “SMART” Study

School-based mentoring (SBM) is a popular, prevention program that is thought to enhance students’ academic and social-emotional outcomes; however, evaluations of SBM consistently find small, null, or harmful effects of these programs on outcomes. To address these limitations, Authors (2016) developed a 12-week SBM program in which mentors taught mentees skills related to improving their school performance (e.g., setting academic goals, effective study habits). Following this program, moderate, positive changes on student grades, behavior, and life satisfaction were observed. Despite positive effects of this manualized treatment program, it is unclear 1) how well other SBM programs can implement these enhancements and 2) which enhancements were most related to academic outcomes.

To examine the effect of these enhancements on student academic and social-emotional outcomes, the authors conducted a sequential, multiple assignment randomized trial (SMART). A SMART is an innovative study design that allows researchers to evaluate the causal effect of a treatment while testing the effect of treatment that is delivered adaptively (i.e., changing treatment assignment based on participant response or non-response to an initial treatment). This presentation will 1) provide an overview of a SMART as implemented in a school-based prevention intervention and 2) present preliminary findings from the study after a 4-month period (i.e., the results after the first treatment assignment).

In this study, authors tested the impact of the two activities (i.e., goal-setting and study skills) on student academic and social-emotional outcomes. These enhancements were implemented in a mentoring program for middle school girls serving approximately 60 middle school girls in a southeastern state. During the first semester, participants were randomly assigned to a goal-setting treatment condition or, to a SBM as usual condition. Although all mentees set goals, only one condition followed the goal-setting protocols described by Authors (2016). Mentee school outcomes were evaluated after the first semester. It is hypothesized that mentees who completed the goal-setting protocol described by Authors (2016) will have better academic and social-emotional outcomes compared to those who did not complete these protocols.

Preliminary results from the first semester SMART will be presented to participants and authors will discuss ongoing activities related to the SMART. Findings will provide insight regarding the effect of specific strategies mentors may use with mentees to influence school-relevant outcomes. Findings will also inform next steps in SBM research. Additionally, participants will learn strategies for completing a SMART in a school-based prevention intervention.