Multi-Site Evaluation of Second Step (SSTP)

Multi-site Evaluation of Second Step: Student Success Through Prevention (Second Step - SSTP) in Preventing Bullying and Sexual Violence

This study is a large-scale, randomized longitudinal evaluation of Second Step: Student Success Through Prevention (Second Step - SSTP), a middle school intervention (Committee for Children, 2008), which targets the shared underlying risk and protective factors for bullying, sexual harassment, and dating aggression. This program is unique in its emphasis on the role of peer group norms, attitudes, and behavior in the initiation and maintenance of bullying and other forms of violence. Because of this, this investigation will involve a direct test via social network analysis the extent to which peer norms or shifts in peer attitudes are impacted by the intervention. Bullying is conceptualized as including verbal, physical, relational, and cyber-aggression. Sexual violence is conceptualized as including sexual harassment, sexual coercion in dating relationships, and homophobic teasing. Thirty-six schools were drawn from four school districts in Illinois and one large district in Wichita, Kansas and randomly assigned to Second Step - SSTP or a control condition. Second Step -SSTP program draws from the risk/protective factors model and social-cognitive theories of aggression. Lessons focus on the outcomes of bullying, relational aggression, sexual harassment, dating relationships, and substance use. Risk factors targeted include inappropriate classroom behavior, favorable attitudes toward aggression and substance abuse, deviant peer affiliation, peer rejection, and impulsiveness are targeted as risk factors. Targeted protective factors include empathy, problem-solving skills, school connectedness, assertiveness and adoption of conventional norms. The P3R: Stories of Us - Bullying program, composed of a series of film-based education will be used in the control schools. All 6th graders at each school will be recruited and followed for the three year study period. Students and teachers will complete self-report and nomination tasks. Growth curve analysis via hierarchical linear modeling (HLM; Bryk & Raudenbush, 1992) will be utilized to assess change in the major dependent variables (bullying, sexual harassment perpetration, dating aggression), structural equation modeling will test for mediators across the study period, and social network analysis will be instrumental in identifying peer norms and attitudes.

Study Overview

• Status: Unknown
• Conditions: Aggression
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Second Step Curriculum

Detailed Description

Seven outcome measures were evaluated including bullying perpetration, peer victimization, physical fighting, homophobic name calling (victimization and perpetration), and sexual violence (victimization and perpetration). Given that students in the intervention received only one-year (15 lessons; 50 minutes/week) of the developmentally-sequenced three-year curriculum, it was hypothesized that the strongest intervention effect would be seen for overt physical aggression, followed by more subtle effects for bullying and peer victimization outcomes. Because students were not introduced to concepts of prejudice, bias, and sexual violence (referred to sexual harassment) until the 7th and 8th grade curriculum, it was hypothesized that no significant intervention effects would emerge for these constructs at this point in time.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 4089
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Illinois
    • Champaign, Illinois, United States, 61820
      • University of Illinois, Champaign, Dept of Educational Psychology

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 11 years to 15 years (CHILD)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Enrolled at one of our participating schools

Exclusion Criteria:

• None

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: PREVENTION
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: NONE

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Second Step; Second Step Curriculum	Behavioral: Second Step Curriculum; social emotional learning program for 6th-8th graders. 15 50 minutes lessons in 6th grade, 13 50 minute lessons in 7th and 8th grade. covers empathy, perspective taking, anger management, impulse control, problem-solving, alcohol and drug prevention, sexual harassment, prejudice, bully prevention, bystander intervention
No Intervention: Stories of Us; Stories of Us was provided to schools

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
aggression perpetration	Using University of Illinois Fight Scale (Espelage & Holt, 2001)	pre (fall 2010), three posts (spring 2011, 2012, 2013)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
sexual violence	pre (fall 2010), 3 posts (spring 2011, 2012, 2013)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Collaborators: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Dorothy L Espelage, Ph.D., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: September 1, 2009
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 1, 2013
• Study Completion (Anticipated): October 1, 2014

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 7, 2012
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 13, 2013
• First Posted (Estimate): February 15, 2013

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): March 18, 2014
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 17, 2014
• Last Verified: March 1, 2014

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Aggression
• Other Study ID Numbers: 1U01CE001677 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract); UIUC 10147 (Other Identifier: Institutional Review Board)