Testing the Effectiveness of Relationship Smarts and the Effects of Enhanced Facilitator Training

Testing the Effectiveness of Relationship Smarts Curriculum and the Effects of Enhanced Facilitator Training

This project will test the effectiveness of offering healthy marriage and relation education for youth as part of the regular school curriculum and examine whether providing enhanced training and support for facilitators shows promise for enhancing the effects on high school students. The evaluation will examine a range of students' relationship outcomes, including their attitudes toward relationships, their knowledge of healthy relationships, their communication skills, and the characteristics of their current relationship.

Family Bridges will deliver the "Relationship Smarts +" program to students at 10 Chicago-area high schools. The RS+ curriculum will be delivered to 9th grade students in the target schools and classrooms during the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 school years. The curriculum's 12 sessions will be delivered over a period of about 12 weeks during the winter quarter, with an average of one session taught per week.The lessons cover topics such as personal values, the principals of smart relationships, communication and conflict management, and sexual decision making. Using a three-arm randomized controlled trial design, this study will test the effectiveness of offering RS+ as part of the regular school curriculum on the students' knowledge of healthy relationships, their communication skills, and the characteristics of their current relationship. In addition to testing the effects of the curriculum, the study will also test the effects of providing enhanced training and support to facilitators.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Students must be age 17 or younger
• have consent from a parent or guardian for evaluation activities
• provide assent for evaluation activities.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Students in evaluation classrooms who do not meet these criteria will still receive programming, but will not be included in the STREAMS data collection activities or in the study's analysis.