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School‐based prevention of teen‐age pregnancy and school dropout: Process evaluation of the national replication of the teen outreach program
Author(s) -
Allen Joseph P.,
Philliber Susan,
Hoggson Nancy
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1007/bf00938057
Subject(s) - outreach , health psychology , dropout (neural networks) , school dropout , public health , replication (statistics) , psychology , pregnancy , medical education , gerontology , medicine , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , nursing , political science , sociology , computer science , genetics , virology , biology , machine learning , socioeconomics , law
Examined a program designed to prevent adolescent pregnancy, school failure, and dropout using a process model of evaluation to assess with which groups of participants and under what conditions the program was most effective. Students in the Teen Outreach Program of the Association of Junior Leagues and matched comparison students in 35 schools nationwide participated. Sites that highly utilized a volunteer service component, and sites that primarily served older students reported lower levels of student problem behaviors at program exit, after controlling for problem behaviors at entry. These findings occurred only for program youths and not for comparison youths. The connection of volunteer service to reductions in adolescent problem behaviors is interpreted in terms of helper-therapy and empowerment theories. Limitations of the analytic strategy used in this study, as well as techniques for addressing the limitations, are also discussed.