Project Summary/Abstract (30 Lines)
This study tests the effectiveness of a youth leadership and civic engagement program with a mindfulness component in improving the mental, emotional, and behavioral (MEB) health of youth of color and their civic participation and leadership skills. Specifically, we examine whether the Leadership, Engagement, and youth Activism Program with Mindfulness (LEAP-M) is a feasible and effective intervention to foster civic engagement and leadership among youth of color, and can consequently improve youth MEB health and well- being. We partner with sites located in Boston, Massachusetts and Chicago, Illinois. One of these sites is a school desegregation program, allowing us to test the intervention for youth of color who attend schools predominantly enrolling non-Latinx white students (where they are a numerical minority), while the other is in a large urban school district enrolling primarily youth of color (where they are a numerical majority). Our prior research has demonstrated that addressing structural and social systems is essential to improving MEB health for youth of color. Therefore, the LEAP-M intervention was designed in partnership with youth to facilitate opportunities for awareness of political institutions, social issues, and the role they play in their communities to develop civic participation and leadership, and peer relations, and to improve their wellbeing. LEAP-M integrates training in mindfulness throughout the intervention to support youth in their leadership and civic engagement work. Our long-term goal is to evaluate whether LEAP-M can effectively improve civic skills and the MEB health and well-being of all youth and, specifically, of youth of color. In UG3 Phase 1 we will in Aim
1.1 develop collaborative partnerships with the partner sides, in Aim 1.2 modify the design with partner input and co-create an engagement plan for recruitment and retention, and in Aim 1.3 conduct a pilot study (N=40) to test protocols and refine the methodology with partner feedback. In UH3 Phase 2 we will in Aim 2.1 conduct a two-site 2-arm randomized control trial to test the acceptability and effectiveness of LEAP-M as a mechanism for improving youth MEB health and civic skills (N=504). Youth will be randomly assigned to participate in LEAP-M or in a comparison college and career readiness program of equal duration. In Aim 2.2 we will test whether there is a differential effect of LEAP-M on youth of color, as compared to white students. In Aim 2.3 we will identify potential pathways influencing the link between LEAP-M and youth wellbeing and civic skills. Finally, in Aim 2.4 we will evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the LEAP-M intervention compared with the college and career readiness program to estimate the potential incremental effects of the intervention. The proposed project is expected to provide research to reduce inequity in MEB health using a civic engagement and mindfulness intervention that, if effective, can be brought to scale.
