Rigorous Evaluation of the READY to Stand Curriculum to Prevent the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

Behaviorally worded items to assess students' self-reports of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) victimization; answers are binary (Yes/No) with an option not to answer. Scale information: items are summed and used to create two variables, one indicating if a student has ever experienced these activities and the other indicating if a student has experienced these activities in the past month. Higher scores indicate worse outcomes.

Behaviorally worded items to assess students' self-reports of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) victimization perpetration; answers are binary (Yes/No) with an option not to answer. Scale information: items are summed and used to create two variables, one indicating if a student has ever experienced these activities and the other indicating if a student has experienced these activities in the past 1 or 6 months (1-month time frame utilized at baseline, 6-month time frame utilized for all follow ups). Higher scores indicate worse outcomes.

Response options range from 0 to "10 or more" with an option to not answer. If participants report "one or more times" they are then asked how many times they took the specified actions. Eleven actions are listed, two of which are negative behaviors, such as doing nothing, with the other nine actions being positive behaviors, such as trying to stop the situation. For each positive action, students' responses are re-coded into a binary variable where 0=did not take action and 1=did take action. For each negative item, responses are reverse-scored. Items are then summed to create an overall score that could range from 2 to 7, with a higher score indicating better outcomes.

Behaviorally worded items to assess students' self-reports of experiencing sexual assault victimization and perpetration; answers are binary (Yes/No) with an option not to answer. Items are summed, with higher scores indicating worse outcomes.

Behaviorally worded items to assess students' self-reports of experiencing sexual harassment victimization and perpetration; answers are binary (Yes/No) with an option not to answer. Items are summed, with higher scores indicating worse outcomes.

Behaviorally worded items to assess students' self-reports of experiencing stalking victimization and perpetration; answers are binary (Yes/No) with an option not to answer. Items are summed, with higher scores indicating worse outcomes.

Behaviorally worded items to the Measure of Adolescent Relationship Harassment and Abuse (MARSHA) will be used to assess dating violence victimization and perpetration. Each subscale was summed so that higher scores indicate higher frequencies of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), a worse outcome. Each subscale is also dichotomized to represent the absence or presence of that type of IPV.

Behaviorally worded items from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) will be used to measure physical fights, fear of going to school, and weapon carrying; answers are binary (Yes/No) with an option not to answer. Items are summed, with higher scores indicating worse outcomes.

The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) modified will be used to measure depression; items are rated from 0 ("Not at all") to 3 ("Nearly every day"). Higher scores indicate higher depressive symptomology, a worse outcome.

Items from Monitoring the Future will be used to measure past month alcohol use and alcohol intoxication; items are rated from 0 ("0 times") to 9 ("40+ times"), with higher scores indicating worse outcomes.

Items to measure students' intentions on graduating high school/getting a GED as well as having a job/career, rated from 1 ("not true at all of me") to 4 ("extremely true of me"), with an option not to answer. A total score is calculated by taking the average of the five items, with higher scores indicating better outcomes.

Researcher created items to assess knowledge about sex trafficking (that aligns with the student programming being received). This measure is comprised of 19 items across four subscales. For each subscale, a total score is calculated by taking the mean of the items. The mean is the proportion of items answered correctly; scores can range from 0-1, with a higher score indicating better outcomes.

Researcher created items to assess confidence in resistance to being a victim of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC). Answer options ranged from "not at all confident" (1), "somewhat confident" (2), to "very confident" (3), with an option not to answer. Items are summed with higher scores indicating better outcomes.

Researcher created items to assess the extent to which students value themselves and others. Items were created based on positive youth development and dignity literature. Items comprise two subscales, one on self-value and the next on the value of others, each with eight statements. Participants are asked to rate the statements on a scale from "strongly disagree" (1) to "strongly agree" (4). One item in each section was reverse coded. Scores for the subscales were calculated by taking the average of the subscale items, with higher scores indicating better outcomes.

Items adapted from the Communications Skills Test and Sexual Communication Self-Efficacy Scale to assess conflict management and sexual refusal skills, used to assess students' communication skills with a romantic partner. In addition, two items were created by the researchers to assess consent and respecting boundaries that are based on the READY to Stand© program. Answer options included "very difficult" (1), "difficult" (2), "easy" (3), and "very easy" (4). Higher scale scores reflect healthier relationship communication skills, a better outcome.

The Denial Subscale of the Bystander Readiness to Help measure: participants rate five statements on a scale from "strongly disagree" (4) to "strongly agree" (1), with an option not to answer. The composite score is the mean of the five items, with higher scores indicating better outcomes.

This scale is composed of a series of statements that gauged personal beliefs, perceptions of friends, perceptions of other high school students in this district, and perceptions of school personnel in the district regarding their beliefs on sex trafficking. Participants rate statements on a scale from "strongly disagree" (1) to "strongly agree" (4), with an option not to answer. Items are summed, with higher scores indicating better outcomes.

Items to assess conversations (from students' perspectives) with school personnel about healthy relationships, valuing self and others, healthy relationship skills, sex trafficking, dating violence, and bystander intervention; participants rate statements on a scale from "strongly disagree" (1) to "strongly agree" (4), with an option not to answer. Items are summed, with higher scores indicating better outcomes.