The Aboriginal Youth Mentorship Program

Building on the successes of a communal, relationship based approach to Aboriginal youth mentoring in an after school physical activity program (AYMP), the investigators are evaluating a peer-led approach for diabetes prevention. High school students volunteer as mentors, and develop an after-school program that they then deliver to children in grade 4. The mentors meet twice a week. The first day, they develop an activity plan and decide roles and responsibilities to ensure successful delivery of each activity. The second day, they deliver the program to the grade 4s, which incorporates a healthy snack, 45-minutes of physical activity, and educational games/activities. Our primary goal is to determine the health benefits of AYMP; guided by our youth mentors and community advisors, the investigators will also develop a number of research questions that will help us to better understand the social, emotional, physical and spiritual outcomes of the peer-led mentor program. To answer these questions, the investigators will train community members in both qualitative and quantitative methods. The quantitative outcomes of this study include physical activity, waist circumference, obesity rates, and self-esteem. Qualitative methods may include photovoice and focus group interviews. All of these will be used to assess the social determinants of health and contextual features of the program.

Inclusion criteria

• Grade 4 students. We chose to intervene with youth in grade 4 for four primary reasons: (1) the large majority of youth in grade 4 are in tanner stage 1 and will not experience puberty-related weight gain during the school year; (2) previous experience by our group revealed that attendance throughout the school year is higher in students in grade 4 relative to students in grade 5 or 6; (3) students in grade 4 are old enough to perform low organized games included in the intervention; and (4) retention rates in the intervention are greater than students in grades 5 and 6.

Exclusion criteria

• While all students will be invited to participate in the intervention, for measurement purposes, we will exclude data from those students who may not respond to the intervention or would be unable to participate in the physical activity aspects of the component. This includes children with: (1) musculoskeletal injuries that limit physical activities; (2) treatment for chronic conditions that would elicit weight gain or limit participation in physical activity (insulin, corticosteroids, blood pressure medications); (3) poor attendance (<60% of school days) in the first semester; (4) children whose parents are unwilling to provide consent. Note: the intervention will be offered to youth with chronic conditions, however their data will not be included in the final analysis, due to confounding effects of medications.