Building Healthy Relationships: An Evaluation of the Fourth R Curriculum with Middle School Students in Bronx, NY (2010-2012) (ICPSR 35255)

Version Date: Jun 9, 2017

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Principal Investigator(s):
Amanda B. Cissner, Center for Court Innovation; Lama Hassoun Ayoub, Center for Court Innovation

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR35255.v1

Version V1

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Summary

These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.

This study seeks to test the Fourth R curriculum, a curriculum that seeks to build relationship knowledge and skills, with a younger, urban population of middle school students in the Bronx, New York. Utilizing a randomized controlled trial design, this study tests the effectiveness of the Fourth R curriculum with seventh-grade students drawn from ten public middle schools in the Bronx, New York. A secondary quasi-experimental study seeks to examine diffusion of program impacts by comparing outcomes between students assigned to the experimental control sample and students in three comparison schools where no one received the Fourth R.

The study seeks to measure program impact on five primary and three secondary domains. Primary program impact domains include:

  1. Dating violence (victimization and perpetration)
  2. Sexual harassment/assault (victimization and perpetration)
  3. Peer violence/bullying (victimization and perpetration)
  4. Sexual activity
  5. Drug and alcohol use
Secondary outcomes, which are targeted by the Fourth R curriculum, but are not the core program focus, include:
  1. Perceived school safety
  2. Positive beliefs (e.g., anti-fighting/violence, rejection of gender stereotypes)
  3. Pro-social behaviors

This study achieved their goals through student surveys, administrator and teacher interviews, and student focus groups.

Citation

Cissner, Amanda B., and Ayoub, Lama Hassoun. Building Healthy Relationships: An Evaluation of the Fourth R Curriculum with Middle School Students in Bronx, NY (2010-2012). Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2017-06-09. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR35255.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (2010-MU-MU-0012)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

School

Restrictions

Access to these data is restricted. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement, specify the reasons for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2010-09 -- 2012-06

Date of Collection

2010-09 -- 2010-10 (Baseline surveys), 2011-05 -- 2011-06 (Initial follow-up surveys), 2012-05 -- 2012-06 (Second follow-up surveys)

Data Collection Notes

  1. These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.

  2. The qualitative data are not available as part of this data collection at this time.

  3. An SPSS syntax file recording how summary variables were created is also included in this release.

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Study Purpose

The purpose of this study was to test the Fourth R curriculum with a younger, urban population of middle school students in the Bronx, New York.

Study Design

Incoming seventh-grade students in ten Bronx middle schools were assigned to class sections, which were then randomly assigned to receive the Fourth R or a standard seventh-grade curriculum during the 2010-2011 academic year. Surveys were administered to students at three points: a baseline survey was collected during the fall of 2010, prior to program implementation; a follow-up survey was collected at the conclusion of the 2010-2011 academic year (in June), after half of the students had received the Fourth R curriculum; and a final follow-up survey was collected at the conclusion of the 2011-2012 academic year, a full year after any students received the curriculum.

Three additional Bronx middle schools were included in a secondary quasi-experimental study to allow researchers to measure whether students in the experimental schools who did not directly receive the Fourth R curriculum might experience some program benefit, based on school-wide diffusion of program messages, as a result of peer-to-peer or teacher-to-student transmission of program materials.

Additionally, interviews were conducted with teachers and administrators as part of a process evaluation and fidelity analysis to measure the extent to which the implementation of the curriculum was faithful to the original program model. Student focus groups were held at the end of the seventh and eighth grade school year in order to reflect on program implementation and to provide feedback for improvement.

Sample

All students who were incoming 7th grade students in one of the 13 Bronx middle schools, and their teachers and school administrators, during the 2010-2011 academic year. Students in the ten experimental schools were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions (Fourth R or standard 7th grade curriculum).

Time Method

Longitudinal: Panel

Universe

Seventh grade students in 13 Bronx middle schools in the 2010-2011 school year.

Unit(s) of Observation

Individual

Data Source

Student surveys.

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables

This study contains one SPSS dataset that includes 1183 cases and 873 variables.

2010-MU-MU-0012_FINAL_data_file_9.3.2014.sav: The variables in this dataset contain information from the baseline survey and the two follow-up surveys provided to students. They include topics such as demographics, sexual interest and history, family life, whether students were a victim of a physical or sexual assault by a peer, prior sexual education, peer and perpetrator pressure, method of harassment (sexual, physical, verbal and online), type of abuse, drug and alcohol use, feeling of safety in school and responses to bullying

Response Rates

Final analyses were limited to successfully-matched surveys, leaving a total of 745 cases (570 experimental, 175 quasi-experimental comparison) for baseline to T1 analyses and 709 cases (517 experimental, 192 quasi-experimental comparison) for baseline to T2 analyses. Approximately 63% of T1 and 60% of T2 respondents were matched to the same students at baseline.

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Original Release Date

2017-06-09

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • Cissner, Amanda B., and Lama Hassoun Ayoub. Building Healthy Relationships: An Evaluation of the Fourth R Curriculum with Middle School Students in Bronx, NY (2010-2012). ICPSR35255-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2017-06-09. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR35255.v1
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Weight

N/A

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Notes

  • These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

  • One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.