Skip to main content
OpenTrials
Completed

NCT Number: NCT04247880

The Use of Mentoring to Promote Well-being for Female SMART Members

Women are highly underrepresented in the construction skilled trades. In addition to facing the industry's well-known physical risks, women are subjected to discrimination, harassment, and skills under-utilization. As a result, tradeswomen have increased risk for injury, stress-related health effects, and high attrition rates from apprenticeship programs, thus perpetuating their minority status. Mentoring is a well-established technique for learning technical and personal navigation skills in new or challenging social environments. The investigators propose development and dissemination of a mentorship program through local unions of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART), and evaluating its success in reducing women's injury and work stress, while improving retention.

Completed

Looking for future studies?

Notify Me

Key information

Conditions

Harassment, Non-Sexual Behavior Behavioral Symptoms Bullying, Workplace Harassment, Sexual Mental Stress Occupational Diseases Occupational Stress Sexual Behavior Sexual Harassment Social Behavior Stress, Psychological Work Related Stress Work-Related Condition Work-related Injury

Age range

21 year–65 year

Sex eligibility

Female

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Phoenix Area Local 359, Phoenix, Arizona, United States

Loading trial locations.

About this study

Journey-level workers will be trained on effective mentoring techniques, and matched to approximately 100 women apprentices within participating local unions. Mentees will be followed for two years within the mentorship program, with another 100 women apprentices in locals not receiving the mentorship training similarly followed as controls. The impact of participation in mentoring programs will be measured through apprentices' experience of stress, coping mechanisms, safety climate, and retention in the apprenticeship programs. Specifically, the investigators propose to:

Aim 1: Develop a mentorship training program for journey-level sheet metal workers to assist women apprentices in navigating the challenges faced by women in trades

Aim 2: Disseminate the training and assist locals in developing effective mentorship programs

Aim 3: Evaluate the effectiveness of the mentoring programs specified in Aims 1 and 2

Aim 4: Disseminate the best practices for supporting women apprentices in the skilled trades.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

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

Inclusion criteria

  • All mentors must be journey-level sheet metal workers that are members of the SMART (International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers) Union. All mentees and control apprentices must be apprentice-level sheet metal workers that are members of the SMART Union, and identify as woman.

Exclusion criteria

  • No exclusions will be made on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, age, disability or religion for mentors, mentees, and control apprentices. No exclusions will be made on the basis of gender for mentors. For mentees and control apprentices, those that do not identify as a woman will be excluded.

Treatment and study plan

Mentoring program

Behavioral

Apprentice-level female construction workers will be assigned to a mentor who has gone through a rigorous mentorship training. Participants will be asked to meet with a mentor at least 4 times/year in person to discuss the challenges of being a female in construction, learn coping mechanisms, and otherwise discuss the unique challenges of the job environment.

Primary outcomes

  1. Stress

    Time frame: 1 year period

    Measures of feelings of stress among the female workers from the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) where higher scores indicate a worse outcome. Minimum value is 0 and maximum value is 40.

  2. Job Satisfaction

    Time frame: 1 year period

    Measures of job satisfaction from the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) where higher scores indicate higher job satisfaction. Minimum value is 1 and maximum value is 6.

  3. Social Support

    Time frame: 1 year period

    Measures of social support both in and out of work from the Medical Outcomes Study (MOS) Social Support Survey. Higher scores indicate greater feelings of social support. Minimum value of 1 and maximum value of 5.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

University of Washington

Other

Collaborators

  • National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH/CDC)
  • The Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR)

Registry information

Official study title

Advancing Women in the Sheet Metal Workers' Trade: A Coordinated Mentoring Program to Promote Safety, Health, and Well-being

Important dates

Study start
2021
Primary completion
2024
Study completion
2024
First posted
Jan 30, 2020
Registry last updated
Sep 16, 2025

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.

Related clinical trials

Published trials that share one or more normalized conditions with this study.