3.
Explored the mechanisms by which a well-validated intervention to prevent school failure, suspension, and teenage pregnancy
produces its effects, using site-level data from 66 sites involving over 1,000 students participating in national replication
of the Teen Outreach Program. Multiple informants provided data on operating characteristics of each site. These were then
used to explain differences across sites in levels of success in reducing youth problem behaviors using a pre-post design
and a well-matched comparison group. In accord with predictions from developmental theory, middle school sites that promoted
student autonomy and relatedness with peers and with site facilitators achieved significantly greater levels of success in
reducing problem behaviors. Offering volunteer experiences perceived as teaching middle school students new skills and leaving
them real choices about the type of work they did was also linked to program success. Although the program was equally sucessful
with students from a wide range of sociodemographic backgrounds, links of program factors to site-level outcomes were found
only for middle school but not high school sites. Implications of these findings for the development of programmatic interventions
targeted at adolescents are discussed.
The Teen Outreach program and its evaluation have been supported by grants from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Lila
Wallace Reader's Digest Fund and other sources. We also thank the Association of Junior Leagues International, local Junior
Leagues around the country, and the students and facilitators who made this program possible. The Spencer and W. T. Grant
Foundations also provided support to the first author for the write-up of this study.
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