Open AccessThe Connection Project: Changing the peer environment to improve outcomes for marginalized adolescents
Author(s) -
Joseph P. Allen,
Rachel K. Narr,
Alison Gilson Nagel,
Meghan A. Costello,
Karen Guskin
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
development and psychopathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.761
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1469-2198
pISSN - 0954-5794
DOI - 10.1017/s0954579419001731
Subject(s) - intervention (counseling) , psychology , ethnically diverse , context (archaeology) , peer group , randomized controlled trial , peer relations , developmental psychology , depressive symptoms , clinical psychology , social environment , psychiatry , medicine , anxiety , paleontology , population , surgery , environmental health , political science , law , biology
This study evaluated a school-based intervention to enhance adolescent peer relationships and improve functional outcomes, building upon Ed Zigler's seminal contribution in recognizing the potential of academic contexts to enhance social and emotional development. Adolescents (N = 610) primarily from economically or racially/ethnically marginalized groups were assessed preintervention, postintervention, and at 4-month follow-up in a randomized controlled trial. At program completion, intervention participants reported significantly increased quality of peer relationships; by 4-month follow-up, this increased quality was also observable by peers outside of the program, and program participants also displayed higher levels of academic engagement and lower levels of depressive symptoms. These latter effects appear to have potentially been mediated via participants' increased use of social support. The potential of the Connection Project intervention specifically, and of broader efforts to activate adolescent peer relationships as potent sources of social support and growth more generally within the secondary school context, is discussed.