This project focuses on a multiple cohort, cohort-sequential longitudinal study of high-school aged inner-city multi-ethnic sample. The samples will be followed from starting grades of 9 to 11th through either graduation or post-3 years of high school depending upon the age of start. There will be three main samples of children. The first two samples will be assessed individually on a regular basis and will be part of an experimental designed in which they will be randomized into an intervention (weekly payment for maintaining good grades) versus. a wait- list (no longer than one year) comparison sample. These two samples will be composed of African-American, Asian, Latino and White teens. The third sample will contain all the remaining (30,000-40,000) students in the Philadelphia School System. The project proposes to explore the links between resiliency (high school graduation) and community characteristics. The project has give main aims. 1. Longitudinally evaluate what youth psychological characteristics are related to the differential school outcomes of grades and school completion. 2. Provide a further tests of PVEST theory examining normative developmental tasks and normative issues from mid adolescence to young adulthood. 3. Implement and test the effectiveness of the stipend-based intervention and compare randomized intervention and comparison groups. 4. Examine the relationships of cultural and context (neighborhood level assessments) in examining outcomes for an ethnically diverse sample and thus ascertain whether different psychological and ecological variables predict resilient outcomes in differing ethnic groups.
| Spencer, Margaret Beale; Noll, Elizabeth; Cassidy, Elaine (2005) Monetary incentives in support of academic achievement: results of a randomized field trial involving high-achieving, low-resource, ethnically diverse urban adolescents. Eval Rev 29:199-222 |
