A Peer E-mentoring Intervention to Improve Employment

March 10, 2022 updated by: Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital

A Peer E-mentoring Intervention to Improve Transition to Employment for Youth With Physical Disabilities

Despite the strong business case of hiring people with disabilities, a significant proportion of youth with disabilities leave high school and neither work nor continue their education and are unprepared to meet the demands of a work environment. Although youth with disabilities have much to gain from employment readiness programs, they are often excluded from, or have limited access to school and community vocational programs. One encouraging approach to address gaps in vocational programming is through peer mentoring, which may facilitate a smoother transition to adulthood by offering support to enhance coping skills. Despite the increase in online communities, little is known about their impact on vocational mentoring for youth with physical disabilities and their parents. The purpose of this study is to develop, implement and assess the feasibility of an online peer mentor employment readiness intervention for youth with physical disabilities and their parents to improve their self-efficacy, career maturity and social support.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Our primary OBJECTIVE is: (1) to develop, implement and assess the feasibility of an online peer mentor employment readiness intervention for youth with physical disabilities and their parents to improve their self-efficacy, career maturity and social support.

A mixed methods feasibility randomized controlled trial design will be conducted to develop and assess the usability of "Empowering youth towards Employment" intervention. Youth (aged 15-25) with physical disabilities and their parents will be randomly assigned to a control or experimental group (12-week, interactive intervention, moderated by peer mentors). A qualitative thematic analysis will be conducted to analyze the content of discussion forums. Interviews with youth, parents and mentors will also be conducted about their experiences in the intervention.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

44

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • Ontario
      • Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M4G 1R8
        • Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

15 years to 25 years (Child, Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion criteria for youth participants:

  • Able to read/write in English;
  • A diagnosed physical disability (i.e., cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, spinal cord injury etc.); (4) currently enrolled in or have completed a high school diploma in the applied / academic stream (to screen for cognitive impairment);
  • Aged 15-25;
  • Have access to a computer and internet;
  • Have no paid work experience.

Inclusion criteria for Parents:

  • Are the parent of a youth meeting above inclusion criteria
  • Can read/write in English
  • Have access to a computer with Internet

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Recently completed or currently participating in another employment readiness or peer support intervention.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Empowering youth towards employment
This is a behavioural e-mentor intervention. Trained mentors will facilitate employment readiness learning and engage youth in discussions over a 12-week period. Each week the mentors will introduce a new employment topic and will engage youth in a discussion and answer questions.
Behavioral: Empowering youth towards employment
Experimental: Empowering youth towards employment This is a behavioural e-mentor intervention. Trained mentors will facilitate employment readiness learning and engage youth in discussions over a 12-week period. Each week the mentors will introduce a new employment topic and will engage youth in a discussion and answer questions.
No Intervention: Control group
The control group will have access to the employment activities during the 12-week employment readiness learning but will not have access to a mentor.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Change in career maturity inventory--attitude scale (CMI-AS)
Time Frame: baseline (1-week pre-study arm 1), 12 weeks (post-study arm 1)
baseline (1-week pre-study arm 1), 12 weeks (post-study arm 1)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Change in family empowerment scale
Time Frame: baseline (1-week pre-study arm 1), 12 weeks (post-study arm 1)
baseline (1-week pre-study arm 1), 12 weeks (post-study arm 1)
Change in multi-dimensional scale of perceived social support
Time Frame: baseline (1-week pre-study arm 1), 12 weeks (post-study arm 1)
baseline (1-week pre-study arm 1), 12 weeks (post-study arm 1)
Change in Arc's self-determination scale
Time Frame: baseline (1-week pre-study arm 1), 12 weeks (post-study arm 1)
baseline (1-week pre-study arm 1), 12 weeks (post-study arm 1)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital

Collaborators

The Hospital for Sick Children
University of Toronto
University of Ottawa
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Ability Online

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

January 1, 2016

Primary Completion (Actual)

April 1, 2019

Study Completion (Actual)

July 1, 2020

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 7, 2015

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 12, 2015

First Posted (Estimate)

August 13, 2015

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 11, 2022

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 10, 2022

Last Verified

March 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • REB 15-590

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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