Evaluation of an Entrepreneurship Program for American-Indian Youth

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Status: Completed

Conditions: Depressive Symptoms; Substance Use

Treatments: Behavioral: Recreational League Control Condition; Behavioral: Arrowhead Business Group Curriculum

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02157493

U261IHS0080-01-00

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study will use a randomized controlled design to evaluate whether a youth entrepreneurship/life-skills intervention for reservation-based American Indian adolescents (ages 13-15) improves psychosocial, behavioral health, educational, and economic outcomes from baseline for up to 3 years follow-up as compared to a recreational sports league control condition.

Full description

Intervention activities will be held over a 3 night/4 day residential camp and 6 weekend workshops during the academic year. The control condition will consist of a recreational sports league held on 3 Saturdays, also during the academic year.

Enrollment: 449 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 13 to 15 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• American Indian ethnicity and primary residence within the Fort Apache Indian Reservation.
• Participants must be 13-15 years old, enrolled as a student at one of the participating high schools, and must have parent/guardian consent for participation in the study.

Exclusion criteria

• Youth that are currently enrolled in foster care will not be eligible to participate in the study.
• Those unable to participate in any of the evaluation assessments or intervention components will also be excluded.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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449 participants in 2 patient groups

Arrowhead Business Group Curriculum

Experimental group

Description:

The Arrowhead Business Group (ABG) Curriculum is a 22-session youth entrepreneurship/life-skills intervention delivered by trained American Indian paraprofessionals from the community to mixed-gender groups of approximately 25 youth. The intervention is delivered over a 3 night/4 day camp along with weekend workshops once a month for 6 months during the academic year. Depending on the time of enrollment, subjects will receive follow-up assessments at 6-month intervals for up to 36-months post-intervention. (Subjects in this cohort will also receive the activities associated with the control condition.)

Treatment:

Behavioral: Recreational League Control Condition

Behavioral: Arrowhead Business Group Curriculum

Recreational League Control Condition

Active Comparator group

Description:

The Recreational League Control Condition will be led by local American Indian study staff who are experienced with Johns Hopkins camps and community-based Apache sports programs. Sports and recreational activities will be conducted on 3 Saturdays during the academic year to mixed gender groups of approximately 50 participants.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Recreational League Control Condition