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Completed

NCT Number: NCT02829411

Testing the Effectiveness of Integrating Relationship Education Into an Existing Workforce Readiness Program

The project will test the strategy of integrating 25 hours of relationship education into an existing employment program for low-income individuals ages 18-30. It will use a 2-arm randomized controlled trial to test the effect of this full package of services on participants' employment outcomes and relationship outcomes.

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Key information

Conditions

Marriage Family Relations

Age range

18 year–30 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

FWCA

St Louis, Missouri, 63133, United States

About this study

The study will examine the programming by FWCA, which currently offers the Career Pathways Bridge program in three locations in St. Louis County in Missouri. The evaluation will test the strategy of integrating relationship education into an existing workforce readiness program. FWCA plans to add approximately 17 hours of content from the Within My Reach relationship education curriculum to the two-week job readiness workshop it offers as part of the Career Pathways Bridge program. Second, FWCA will add up to eight additional one-hour relationship skills education sessions that customers can attend in the five weeks after completing the initial two-week job readiness workshop.

The evaluation will use a 2-arm randomized controlled trial to test the effect of this full package of services on participants' employment outcomes and relationship outcomes. The target population will be low-income individuals ages 18-30 living in St. Louis County, Missouri. The study will aim to enroll 1000 individuals over 2 years. The Metropolitan Employment and Training (MET) Center will be the primary recruitment and service location.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • disconnected from workforce

Exclusion criteria

-

Treatment and study plan

Workforce Readiness Program

Behavioral

job readiness workshops, organized into ten daily sessions over two weeks.

Relationship education

Behavioral

25-hours of "Within My Reach" curriculum and relationship skills education sessions

Primary outcomes

  1. Perceived romantic relationship skills

    Time frame: 1 year after random assignment

    Six-item scale (α = 0.84) equal to the average level of agreement-from "strongly disagree" (= 1) to "strongly agree" (= 4)-with 6 statements.

  2. Perceived conflict management skills

    Time frame: 1 year after random assignment

    Five-item scale (α = 0.77) equal to the average self-assessment-from "I am bad at this" (= 1) to "I am extremely good at this" (= 4)-of 5 skills.

  3. Support for going slow in romantic relationships

    Time frame: 1 year after random assignment

    Single-item scale equal to the level of agreement-from "strongly disagree" (= 1) to "strongly agree" (= 4)-with the following statement: "People are more likely to succeed in their relationships if they take things slowly."

  4. Disapproval of couple violence

    Time frame: 1 year after random assignment

    Five-item scale (α = 0.77) equal to the average level of disagreement-from "strongly agree" (= 1) to "strongly disagree" (= 4)-with 5 statements.

  5. Any exposure to psychological abuse

    Time frame: 1 year after random assignment

    Binary variable equal to 1 if the respondent indicates that a romantic partner has done any of the following in the past year:

    • Try to keep you from seeing or talking with your friends
    • Make you feel stupid
    • Keep money from you or take your money without asking
    • Made you feel afraid that they might hurt you

  6. Any exposure to physical abuse

    Time frame: 1 year after random assignment

    Binary variable equal to 1 if the respondent indicates that a romantic partner has done any of the following in the past year:

    • Push, shove, or slap you
    • Punch or kick you or beat you up

  7. Any perpetration of physical abuse

    Time frame: 1 year after random assignment

    Binary variable equal to 1 if the respondent indicates that they did any of the following to a romantic partner in the past year:

    • Pushed, shoved, or slapped them
    • Punched, kicked, or beat them up

  8. Involved in an unsteady relationship

    Time frame: 1 year after random assignment

    Binary variable equal to 1 if the respondent reports being involved in an on-again/off-again relationship at the time of the follow-up survey and equal to 0 if the respondent reports being married, engaged, romantically involved on a steady basis, or not in a romantic relationship at the time of the follow-up survey.

  9. Had an unintended pregnancy

    Time frame: 1 year after random assignment

    Binary variable equal to 1 if the respondent reports that they had been/gotten someone pregnant since study enrollment and that they did not want to be/get someone pregnant or the pregnancy came sooner than intended.

  10. Employed or training to improve job prospects

    Time frame: 1 year after random assignment

    Binary variable equal to 1 if the respondent was employed, participating in a job training program, or enrolled in school at the time of the follow-up survey.

  11. Monthly earnings, administrative records

    Time frame: 1 year after random assignment

    Continuous variable constructed from NDNH data that is created by summing quarterly earnings across the four quarters following random assignment and dividing by 12.

  12. Monthly earnings, survey report

    Time frame: 1 year after random assignment

    Continuous variable constructed from survey data that is based on average monthly earnings from all jobs in the first year following study enrollment.

  13. Better off financially now

    Time frame: 1 year after random assignment

    Binary variable equal to 1 if the respondent feels better off financially now than a year ago.

  14. Economic hardship

    Time frame: 1 year after random assignment

    Continuous variable that represents how many of the following six economic hardships the respondent experienced since study enrollment

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.

Other

Collaborators

  • Department of Health and Human Services

Registry information

Important dates

Study start
2016
Primary completion
2018
Study completion
2020
First posted
Jul 12, 2016
Registry last updated
Apr 5, 2021

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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