Taking Charge (OJJDP Model Program Guide)

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Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Serving Children, Families and Communities

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Taking Charge

Intervention:

The Taking Charge curriculum is a skills-based, cognitive-behavioral brief group intervention designed to help pregnant and parenting female students stay in school. School achievement and subsequent graduation are believed to be the first step for adolescent mothers toward establishing lives of self-sufficiency. The primary goals of Taking Charge are school achievement, through increased attendance and grades, and positive life outcomes. Its curriculum was designed within a developmental and strengths-based framework, so school professionals can effectively intervene with young mothers and enhance their social problem-solving skills and active coping strategies that will enable them to manage the challenges they encounter across four critical life domains: education, personal relationships, parenting, and employment/career.

The school-based curriculum was developed because of the extraordinarily high dropout rate of pregnant and parenting Mexican American female students in high school. The curriculum includes a group meeting once a week for 8 weeks, with each session lasting 60 to 90 minutes. The group session format has three segments. The first segment involves a group discussion led by the group leader on various topics, including participants’ personal experiences with tasks completed between sessions. During the second segment, participants work through the five-step problem-solving process in which participants identify their goals and carry out specific tasks toward each goal before the next group meeting. The third segment includes any questions or concerns participants may have for the group leader, and a summarization of the session.

Incentives are built into the curriculum to motivate participants to fully engage in the group activities and individual tasks. The primary incentive is a point system, in which points can be earned each week by attending school, attending group sessions, completing tasks, and finishing school homework. Points are accrued throughout the 8 weeks of group sessions toward an award in the end. Awards may vary according to available resources but may include gift certificates, small gifts such as movie passes, and participation in an off-campus field trip.

The Taking Charge curriculum is based on seven major theoretical components:

Goal setting across the four critical life domains
Developmental theory framework
Strengths-based, solution-oriented brief therapy framework (Franklin and Nurius, 1998)
Theory of stress and coping (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984)
Bandura’s social learning theory (Bandura, 1999)
Social problem-solving process (D’Zurilla and Nezu, 1982)
Task-centered group model (Reid, 1986)

The theoretical foundation provides the basis for many of the intervention activities, such as practicing and mastering skills, modeling, and incentive strategies.

Evaluation Methodology:

Study 1
Study 1 was conducted in an urban school district on the U.S.–Mexico border, employing a randomized experimental design, with pretests, posttests, and a 30-day follow-up. Using a cluster sampling technique, 5 of the 12 high schools in the district were picked to participate in the study, selected by teenage parent program and staff and special education administrators in the district. The selected schools were perceived as representative of the pregnant adolescent population in the district. Two of the five were the largest high schools in the district, two were moderate in size with relatively high enrollment of pregnant and parenting students, and the fifth was a dropout recovery high school. All female students in the schools who met either of the following criteria were invited to participate:

1) Pregnant at the beginning of the study, with or without children, but had not yet entered the 8th month of pregnancy
2) Were not pregnant at the beginning of the study, but were parenting one or more children of who they had custody

After pretest, the students who agreed to participate in the study were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group. The experimental group received eight sessions of group intervention along with regular case management services, while the control group received only regular case management services. Of the 86 young women who agreed to participate, 73 completed both the pretest and posttest assessments (experimental group=33; control group=40). The average age of the study participants was 17, and 96 percent self-identified as Mexican or Mexican American. Fifty-two of the female students had at least one child, and 17 were pregnant for the first time. Preliminary analysis revealed no significant differences between the groups.

The study concentrated on evaluating the impact of the curriculum on coping behaviors and social problem–solving skills that affect the four critical life domains (school achievement, parenting, personal relationships, and employment/career). The study used standardized measures, including the Rational Problem-Solving Subscale from the Social Problem-Solving Inventory—Revised (Short Form) and three subscales from the Adolescent Coping Orientation for Problem Experiences. Data was also collected from school records to determine students’ grades and attendance. School attendance was measured as a ratio variable representing the percent of days attended.

Study 2
The second study was conducted in a semirural alternative high school district in New Mexico. The study used a quasi-experimental design with a pretest and posttest. All pregnant and parenting mothers in the school were invited to participate in the Taking Charge program. Those who decided not to were invited to participate as a comparison subject. Overall, 24 female students decided to participate in the study, with 13 choosing to participate in the treatment group and 11 agreeing to serve as a comparison subject. Those in the treatment group received the eight-session group intervention plus regular case management. The comparison youth received regular case management services only. Regular case management services included crisis counseling, advocacy, transportation to the social and health services appointments, and individual, social, and health service referrals. During the study some students dropped out, leaving 12 in the treatment group and 7 in the comparison group. Seventeen out of 19 (89 percent) self-identified as Hispanic or Mexican American, and 2 self-identified as Anglo. The ages ranged from 15 to 19. There were no significant differences between the groups at baseline.

The outcomes were measured by data that was collected from school records, including school attendance and grade average. The pretest period for each measure was the first 6-week grading period of the spring semester. The posttest period was the 6-week grading period ending the week after the Taking Charge group session. These outcome measures were analyzed with an ANOVA.

Evaluation Outcome:

Study 1
The results showed that the female adolescents who participated in Taking Charge demonstrated significant and substantive improvements on all the outcomes measures, compared with the control group. The treatment group showed significant improvements on the subscales measuring coping skills and problem-solving skills. The intervention showed a strong impact on both skills.

The program had a moderate effect in increasing school attendance for program participants. The mean attendance rate for the treatment group increased from 0.83 before participating in the program to 0.90 after participating in the program, while the mean attendance rate for the control group decreased from 0.84 to 0.83. The intervention also had a moderate effect on the grade averages. The grade average for the treatment group increased from 77.84 to 79.59, while the grade average for the control group decreased from 77.45 to 71.63.

The follow-up results showed that the differences between the treatment group and control group on the measurements of problem-solving skills, coping skills, and school attendance were maintained following the end of the intervention.

Study 2
Before the intervention, both the treatment and control group had identical attendance rates (0.80), with each group missing about 6 days of school during the previous 6 weeks. Following participation in the program, the treatment group improved attendance by 8 percent and had missed about 3.6 days of school over the previous 6 weeks. The control group dropped 2 percent in attendance and missed 7.5 days of school over the previous 6 weeks.

The results from the grade average were similar. Before participating in the program, the grade average of the treatment group (80.62) was 2.81 points lower then the control group (83.43). Following the program, the grade average of the treatment group (82.66) gained 2.04 points, surpassing the grade average of the comparison group (80.73), which had dropped by 2.70 points.

Other Information:

References:

Bandura, Albert. 1999. “Social Cognitive Theory of Personality.” In Daniel Cervone and Yuichi Shoda (eds.). The Coherence of Personality. New York, N.Y.: Guilford Press, 185–241.

D’Zurilla, Thomas J., and Arthur M. Nezu. 1982. “Social Problem–Solving in Adults.” In Philip C. Kendall (ed.). Advances in Cognitive-Behavioral Research and Therapy. New York, N.Y.: Academic Press, 202–69.

Franklin, Cynthia G., and Paula S. Nurius. 1998. Constructivism in Practice: Methods and Challenges. Milwaukee, Wis.: Families International.

Harris, Mary Beth, and Cynthia G. Franklin. 2003. “Effects of a Cognitive-Behavioral, School-Based, Group Intervention With Mexican American Pregnant and Parenting Adolescents.” Social Work Research 27(2):71–83.

———. 2007. Taking Charge: A Life Skills Group Curriculum for Adolescent Mothers. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press.

———. 2009. “Helping Adolescent Mothers to Achieve in School: An Evaluation of the Taking Charge Group Intervention.” Children and Schools 31(1):27–34.

Lazarus, Richard S., and Susan Folkman. 1984. Stress, Appraisal, and Coping. New York, N.Y.: Springer.

Reid, William James. 1986. “Tasked-Centered Social Work.” In Francis Joseph Turner (ed.). Social Work Treatment: Interlocking Theoretical Approaches (Third Edition). New York, N.Y.: Free Press, 614–40.

Program Specification:

Current Rating:

Promising

Expected Date of Re-Review:

Summer 2013

Program Type:

Academic Skills Enhancement

Classroom Curricula

Cognitive Behavioral Treatment

Ethnicity:

Hispanic or Latino (of any race)

White

Gender:

Female

Age:

14 - 20

Target Settings:

Rural

Suburban

Urban

Problem Behaviors:

Academic Problems

Risk & Protective Factors:

Risk

Individual

Teen parenthood

School

Dropping out of school

Low academic achievement

Truancy / Frequent absences

Protective

Individual

Self-efficacy

Social competencies and problem solving skills

School

Rewards for prosocial school involvement

Strong school motivation / Positive attitude toward school

Additional Information:

Status:

Program is in operation at this time.

Performance Measures:

Suggested OJJDP Performance Measures for the Program Types(s):

Delinquency Prevention
Academic Skills Enhancement
Logic Model: PDF
Performance Matrix:PDF
School Programs
Academic Skills Enhancement
Logic Model: PDF
Performance Matrix:PDF
Delinquency Prevention
Classroom Curricula
Logic Model: PDF
Performance Matrix:PDF
School Programs
Classroom Curricula
Logic Model: PDF
Performance Matrix:PDF
Mental Health Services
Cognitive Behavioral Treatment
Logic Model: PDF
Performance Matrix:PDF

Contact Information:

Program Developer:
Cynthia G. Franklin, Ph.D., LCSW
Stiernberg/Spencer Family Professor in Mental Health University of Texas at Austin, School of Social Work
One University Station D3500
Austin,, TX 78712
Phone: 512.471.0533
Fax: 512.471.9600
Email: Click Here