Evaluating a School-based Social and Material Needs Identification System to Prevent Youth Violence Involvement

The goal of this observational study is to evaluate the effects of Pathways to Potential (P2P) on youth violence involvement in Michigan public K-12 students. The main goals of this study are:

• This project will link longitudinal P2P participation data to state administrative records and school disciplinary data to evaluate associations between school P2P participation and youth outcomes-specifically chronic absenteeism, peer aggression expulsions, and child maltreatment rates within a school (Aim 1).
• Given the focus of P2P is to improve the social and structural conditions within a school that contribute to student chronic absenteeism, the team will assess if chronic absenteeism rates mediate the relationships between school P2P participation and youth violence involvement (Aim 2).
• Finally, a survey of success coaches will inform the examination of school and implementation factors that moderate associations between P2P participation and youth violence involvement (Aim 3).

Schools participating in P2P receive Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) caseworkers, called success coaches, in local elementary, middle, and high schools. After identifying a social or material need that is a barrier to school attendance (e.g., transportation barriers, caregiver unemployment), success coaches connect students and families to community resources and public assistance.

Study Overview

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Conditions: Violence, Physical; Maltreatment, Child
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Pathways to Potential

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 111

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Michigan
    • Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States, 48109
      • University of Michigan

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Almost all of the data used for analyses will come from secondary administrative datasets acquired through Data Use Agreements with specific State of Michigan agencies (i.e. Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the Michigan Department of Education).

The survey portion of this study will ONLY be administered to Success Coaches over the age of 18 who are actively working inside of a K-12 public school at the time of the collection period.

Description

Administrative Data Inclusion Criteria:

• State of Michigan K-12 public school
• In person instruction
• Open to all students in District/area

Administrative Data Exclusion Criteria:

• Private schools
• Virtual learning
• Needs-specific schools

Survey Inclusion Criteria:

• 18 years of age and older
• Working as a Success Coach inside a Michigan K-12 public school during the data collection period

Survey Exclusion Criteria:

• Former Success Coaches
• Success Coaches not working inside a Michigan K-12 public school during the data collection period

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

2

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Implementing Schools; Implementing schools are public K-12 schools in the State of Michigan that participated in the Pathways to Potential program in a given year (from 2012 to 2024).	Other: Pathways to Potential; Pathways to Potential stations MDHHS caseworkers, called success coaches, in local elementary, middle, and high schools. After identifying a social or material need that is a barrier to school attendance (e.g., transportation barriers, caregiver unemployment), success coaches connect students and families to community resources and public assistance.
Non-implementing schools; Non-implementing schools are public K-12 schools in the State of Michigan that DID NOT participate in the Pathways to Potential program in a given year (from 2012 to 2024).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Peer aggression expulsions	The state of Michigan requires all public schools to report expulsions for all students to the Michigan Department of Education (MDE), including the incident type(s) which led to the expulsion. Expulsions are instances in which the local educational agency removes a student from their regular school for disciplinary purposes for the remainder of the school year or longer. The investigators will consider expulsions for peer aggression as expulsions which included any of the following: 1) firearm possession-handgun; 2) firearm possession-rifle/shotgun; 3) firearm possession-other firearm; 4) other weapon possession; 5) bomb or similar threat; 6) arson; 7) physical violence with injury, or; 8) physical violence without injury. For each school, the study team will calculate the total number of peer aggression expulsions per school year.	Peer aggression expulsions will be measured for every academic school year from 2001 to 2022, possibly to 2024 depending on data availability
Child maltreatment	The Michigan Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System (MiSACWIS) includes dates of investigations into child maltreatment, names of alleged victims, and date of birth of alleged victims for all child maltreatment investigations in the state of Michigan. Investigators will link the MiSACWIS data to individual student data from MDE that includes information on student name, date of birth, schools of enrollment, and dates of school enrollment enrolled schools. The study team will use this linked dataset to calculate the number of child maltreatment investigations per school per school year.	Peer aggression expulsions will be measured for every academic school year from 2001 to 2022, possibly to 2024 depending on data availability
Chronic absenteeism	A student is considered chronically absent if they miss 10% or more of school days in which they are enrolled at the school. For each school, the investigators will calculate the total number of students that were chronically absent via the data provided by MDE.	Chronic absenteeism will measured for every academic school year from 2004 to 2022, possibly to 2024 depending on data availability

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Firearm-involved expulsions	In the state of Michigan, firearm possession on school grounds by a student requires the student to be expelled from the school. Expulsions for firearm possession on school grounds can be recorded as one or more of the following incident types: 1) firearm possession-handgun; 2) firearm possession-rifle/shotgun; 3) firearm possession-other firearm. The study team will consider any expulsions that included one of these types as a reason for expulsion as a firearm-involved expulsion. For each school, the study team will calculate the total number of firearm-involved expulsions per school year.	Firearm-involved expulsions will be measured for every academic school year from 2001 to 2022, possibly to 2024 depending on data availability

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Michigan
• Collaborators: Wayne State University; The University of Texas at Arlington
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Rebeccah L Sokol, PhD, University of Michigan

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 21, 2024
• Primary Completion (Actual): October 1, 2025
• Study Completion (Estimated): September 30, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 26, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 2, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): August 14, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): December 19, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 12, 2025
• Last Verified: August 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: intervention; school violence; social needs; school-based; material needs
• Other Study ID Numbers: R01CE003536 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES

IPD Plan Description

Individual participant data will not be shared with other researchers.

MDHHS P2P Data: The Data Use Agreement (DUA) stipulates that the data must only be used by members of the study team and that it must be destroyed at the conclusion of the study.

MDE K-12 Data: This dataset contains Personally Identifiable Information individual-level student data protected under FERPA. The dataset cannot be made publicly available without violating FERPA regulations, risking deductive disclosure, or violating the DUA.

MDHHS MiSACWIS Data: This dataset contains Personally Identifiable Information and sensitive details about child maltreatment investigations. The data cannot be made publicly available without risking deductive disclosure or violating the DUA.

Success Coach Survey data: The survey data will be deidentified and stored in the University of Michigan's Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research's (ICPSR) OpenICPSR repository.

• IPD Sharing Time Frame: The data will become available within a year of the collection completion data (June 2025) and will remain available indefinitely.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Researchers will be able to access individual level, anonymized success coach implementation questionnaire data. Can be found through the openICPSR data repository and accessed by creating a free account (https://doi.org/10.3886/E236862V1).
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; SAP; ICF; ANALYTIC_CODE; CSR

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No