Allen, J. P., Philliber, S., Herrling, S., & Kuperminc, G. P. (1997). Preventing teen pregnancy and academic failure: Experimental evaluation of a developmentally based approach. Child Development, 64(4), 729–742. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1997.tb04233.x

Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial
Number of Participants: 695

Population:

• Age — Mean=15.8 years
• Race/Ethnicity — 67% Black, 18% White, 11% Hispanic, and 4% Other
• Gender — 85% Female and 15% Male
• Status — Participants were high school students in 9–12th grade.

Location/Institution: Not specified

Summary: (To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Teen Outreach [now called Wyman’s Teen Outreach Program® (TOP®)] to address teenage pregnancy and school failure. Participants were randomized to either Teen Outreach or a control group. Measures utilized include self-reported questionnaires that reported demographic age, grade level, race, predominate household composition, parents' education, and problem behaviors. Results indicate that rates of pregnancy, school failure and academic suspension at exit were substantially lower in the Teen Outreach group, even after accounting for student socioeconomic characteristics and entry differences between groups. Limitations include the high rate of attrition in the control group, reliance on self-reported measures, unknown generalization to other unexamined Teen Outreach sites, and lack of follow-up.

Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: None.

Allen, J. P., & Philliber, S. (2001). Who benefits most from a broadly targeted prevention program? Differential efficacy across populations in the Teen Outreach Program. Journal of Community Psychology, 29(6), 637–655. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.1040

Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial
Number of Participants: 3,277

Population:

• Age — Mean=15.8 years
• Race/Ethnicity — 45% Black, 37% White, 13% Hispanic, and 5% Other
• Gender — 73% Male and 27% Female
• Status — Participants were high school students in 9th-12th grade.

Location/Institution: Not specified

Summary: (To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The purpose of the study was to utilize data collected over a 4-year period across over 60 Teen Outreach [now called Wyman’s Teen Outreach Program® (TOP®)] sites nationwide to examine: 1) whether this broad-based competence-enhancing intervention may be most efficacious when serving higher risk adolescents, assessed in terms of both familial risk factors and behavioral risk factors; and 2) whether the program appears equally effective across different sociodemographic groups of young people. Participants were randomized to either Teen Outreach or a control group. Measures utilized include self-reported questionnaires that reported demographics including age, grade level, race, predominate household composition, parents' education, and problem behaviors. Results indicate that Teen Outreach appeared most effective as a prevention program with youths who were most at-risk of the specific type of problem behaviors being assessed. The program had the greatest impact in reducing future pregnancies among the group at highest risk of such pregnancies. The likelihood of an additional pregnancy was less than one-fifth as large in the Teen Outreach group as in the comparison group, even after accounting for other background factors that may have also affected pregnancy rates. For academic failure, Teen Outreach demonstrated greater efficacy for youths who had been previously suspended than for those who had not. The program was also found to be more effective for members of racial ethnic minority groups, who were also at greater risk for academic difficulty in this study. Limitations include the high rate of attrition in control groups, reliance on self-reported measures, unknown generalization to other unexamined Teen Outreach sites, and lack of follow-up.

Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: None.

Walsh-Buhi, E. R., Marhekfa, S. L., Wang, W., Debate, R., Perrin, K., Singleton, A., Noble, C. A., Rahman, S., Maness, S. B., Mahony, H., Ziemba, R., Malmi, M., Marwah, E., Hall, K., Turner, D., Blunt-Vinti, H., Noble, S., M., & Daley, E. M. (2016). The Impact of the Teen Outreach Program on Sexual Intentions and Behaviors. Journal of Adolescent Health, 59(3), 283–290. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2016.05.007

Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial
Number of Participants: 7,976

Population:

• Age — Mean=14.56 years
• Race/Ethnicity — 60% White, 20% Hispanic, 11% Black, and 9% Other
• Gender — 50% Male and 50% Female
• Status — Participants were high school students in 9th-12th grade.

Location/Institution: Florida

Summary: (To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Teen Outreach Program (TOP) [now called Wyman's Teen Outreach Program® (TOP®)] using baseline and follow-up survey data in decreasing pregnancy, risky sexual behavior, and sexual behavior intentions among youth living in nonmetropolitan Florida counties. Participants were randomized to either TOP or a control group. Measures utilized include self-reported questionnaires that reported demographic age, grade level, race, predominate household composition, parents' education, and problem behaviors. Results indicate that in the cohort 1 sample, compared to the control condition, males and females receiving TOP showed lower odds of engaging in recent sex compared to control males and females. Cohort 1 treatment females who did engage in recent sex were less likely to have risky sex. There were fewer significant findings in cohort 2, though TOP females and combined gender had lower odds of risky sex intentions. Overall, cohort 1 females in the TOP condition were the group most likely to benefit from TOP. Limitations include reliance on self-reported measures, generalizability to other states is uncertain, and lack of follow-up.

Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: None.

Moore McBride, A., Chung, S., & Robertson, A. (2016). Preventing academic disengagement through a middle school-based social and emotional learning program. Journal of Experiential Education, 39(4), 370–385. https://doi.org/10.1177/1053825916668901

Type of Study: Pretest–posttest study with a nonequivalent control group (Quasi-experimental)
Number of Participants: 218

Population:

• Age — Not specified
• Race/Ethnicity — 177 African American, 10 White, 9 Multiethnic, 8 Other, 2 Native American/Alaskan Native, and 1 Hispanic/Latino
• Gender — 127 Female and 91 Male
• Status — Participants were middle school students in 7th–8th grade.

Location/Institution: Two public, Midwestern middle schools

Summary: (To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The purpose of the study was to examine the effectiveness of the Teen Outreach Program (TOP) [now called Wyman's Teen Outreach Program® (TOP®)] to reduce school disciplinary incidents and increase academic engagement for middle school students. Participants were from either TOP or a comparison school. Measures utilized include the Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale, the Engagement versus Disaffection With Learning (EvsD) Measure, the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scale (PALS), and a 12-item scale on civic duty. Results indicate that adolescents who participated in the yearlong intervention experienced statistically significant reductions in failing grades and skipping classes compared with the comparison group, even while controlling for a variety of demographic factors. Although adolescents from the comparison group did not differ significantly in initial rates of failing grades and skipping classes without permission, there were significant reductions in these negative school behaviors for adolescents from the intervention group by posttest. Limitations include nonrandomization of participants, and the comparison school lost its accreditation shortly after the first intervention year. Therefore, underlying issues within the school may have affected students in ways that are unaccounted for in the design of this study; generalizability to other states is uncertain; and lack of follow-up.

Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: None.

Daley, E. M., Marhefka, S. L., Wang, W., Noble, C. A., Mahony, H., Arzola, S., Singleton, A., Malmi, M., Ziemba, R., Turner, D., Marwah, E., & Walsh-Buhi, E. R. (2019). Longitudinal evaluation of the Teen Outreach Programme: Impacts of a health promotion programme on risky sexual behaviours. Health Education Journal, 78(8), 916–930. https://doi.org/10.1177/0017896919857777

Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial
Number of Participants: 4,789

Population:

• Age — 14–16 years
• Race/Ethnicity — 61% White, 21% Hispanic/Latino; 9% Black, and 9% Other
• Gender — 51% Male and 49% Female
• Status — Participants were middle school students in 7–8th grade.

Location/Institution: Non-metropolitan public high schools in Florida, USA

Summary: (To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The study used a subset of the same sample as Walsh-Buhi et al. (2016). The purpose of the study was to evaluate the longitudinal impact of Wyman’s Teen Outreach Programme (TOP) on adolescent pregnancy, sexual behavior, risky sex, and sexual intentions in nonmetropolitan high schools. Participants were randomized into TOP or the standard school health curriculum content. Measures utilized include self-reported questionnaires that reported demographics including age, grade level, race, predominate household composition, parents’ education, and problem behaviors and sexual intention. Results indicate that participants in the TOP group were less likely to report ever having sex, recent sex, recent sex without a condom, or intention to have sex in the next year. At 1-year follow-up, TOP participants were less likely to report ever having been pregnant or having got someone pregnant. When examining treatment effects by gender, statistically significant differences were found only for female TOP participants. Limitations include nonrandomization of participants, generalizability to other states is uncertain, high attrition, and design of this study did not include randomization to different levels of program dosage or intensity.

Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: 1 year.