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| Name | Class |
|---|---|
| Robert Wood Johnson Foundation | OTHER |
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The purpose of this research is to understand how participating or not participating in an action civics curriculum may affect the health and wellbeing of young people. Participants will be chosen from students who attend certain schools that choose to participate in the action civics curriculum. Participation in this research involves completing surveys during class time in the Spring and Fall 2021-2022 semesters and then completing online surveys outside of class in the future.
Equal access to civic resources, such as opportunities for civic engagement and connections to one's community, are an important part of a culture of health. Meaningful experiences in civic engagement and community connectedness are transformative for young people - especially for youth from marginalized backgrounds, who often feel voiceless and excluded from decision-making in civic and social institutions. Theories and correlational evidence point to positive associations between civic engagement (e.g., volunteering, voting, and feelings of civic empowerment) and better mental, physical, and behavioral health and wellbeing. Meaningful civic engagement experiences may have an especially powerful effect on health and wellbeing for those from traditionally marginalized backgrounds. However, causal pathways between civic interventions, civic outcomes, and health and wellbeing outcomes among are not firmly established. Further, how civic engagement and sense of community affect health and wellbeing outcomes are unknown, and questions remain about for whom these effects may be especially beneficial. In this study, we ask whether an established civic intervention called Action Civics affects civic engagement and sense of community, and subsequently affects health and wellbeing among youth. To build on these observational findings, the study team will: (a) examine the causal links between youth civic engagement and sense of community and health, and (b) test whether an established school-based, civic engagement intervention can affect individual health and wellbeing and equity outcomes.
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| Label | Type | Description | Intervention Names |
|---|---|---|---|
| Action Civics program | Experimental | Students in this arm will take part in an Action Civics (AC) program. AC delivers action civics programming to young people from diverse backgrounds nationwide. AC offers a school-based action civics curriculum in which classes collectively choose a local issue, learn strategies and skills for taking civic action, develop an action plan, and take action on their selected local issue. Students, as a class, tackle topics ranging from health-related (e.g., health of school lunches) to safety-related (e.g. lack of crosswalks) to community social issues (e.g., community-police relations). |
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| No Action Civics program | No Intervention | Students in this arm will receive no intervention. |
| Name | Type | Description | Arm Group Labels | Other Names |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Participating in Action Civics program | Behavioral | Students in school classrooms participating in Action Civics program |
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| Measure | Description | Time Frame |
|---|---|---|
| Youth Inventory of Involvement (activism, political engagement, and leadership items) | Questionnaire measures civic engagement using a Likert scale (1-5) with higher composite scores indicating more involvement in each domain | Baseline |
| Youth Inventory of Involvement (activism, political engagement, and leadership items) | Questionnaire measures civic engagement using a Likert scale (1-5) with higher composite scores indicating more involvement in each domain | 4-6 month following baseline |
| Youth Inventory of Involvement (activism, political engagement, and leadership items) | Questionnaire measures civic engagement using a Likert scale (1-5) with higher composite scores indicating more involvement in each domain | 1 year following baseline |
| Measure | Description | Time Frame |
|---|---|---|
| Community Connection Scale | Questionnaire measures sense of community using a Likert scale (1-5) with higher scores indicating higher sense of community. Based on from the California Healthy Kids Survey. | baseline, 4-6 month following baseline, 1 year following baseline |
| Questionnaire from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health |
| Measure | Description | Time Frame |
|---|---|---|
| Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D) | CES-D measures depressive symptoms using a 1-4 range (1=Rarely or none of the time, 2=Some or a little of the time, 3=Occasionally or a moderate amount of time, 4=All of the time). Higher scores CES-D suggest a greater presence of depressive symptoms. | baseline, 4-6 month following baseline, 1 year following baseline |
Inclusion Criteria:
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| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Parissa J Ballard, PhD | Assistant Professor | Principal Investigator |
| Facility | Status | City | State | ZIP | Country | Contacts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wake Forest School of Medicine | Winston-Salem | North Carolina | 27157 | United States |
| PubMed Identifier | Type | Citation | Retractions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 27982470 | Background | Ballard PJ, Cohen AK, Littenberg-Tobias J. Action Civics for Promoting Civic Development: Main Effects of Program Participation and Differences by Project Characteristics. Am J Community Psychol. 2016 Dec;58(3-4):377-390. doi: 10.1002/ajcp.12103. | |
| 29359473 | Background | Ballard PJ, Hoyt LT, Pachucki MC. Impacts of Adolescent and Young Adult Civic Engagement on Health and Socioeconomic Status in Adulthood. Child Dev. 2019 Jul;90(4):1138-1154. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12998. Epub 2018 Jan 23. |
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| Type | Includes Protocol | Includes SAP | Includes ICF | Document Label | Document Date | Document Uploaded Date | Document File Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ICF | No | No | Yes | Informed Consent Form | Aug 4, 2025 | Feb 25, 2026 |
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Questionnaire measures physical and mental health and wellbeing. Response options vary from 4-6 levels for the scales; higher numbers indicate better health. |
| baseline, 4-6 month following baseline, 1 year following baseline |
| Tobacco, Alcohol, Prescription medication, and other Substance use Tool part 2 (TAPS- 2) | Behavioral health symptoms will be measured using adapted items from part 2 of the TAPS questionnaire using a 1-4 range (1=never, 2=once or twice, 3=monthly, 4=weekly or more). Scores on these questions generate a risk level per substance endorsed, based on a range of possible scores per substance. | baseline, 4-6 month following baseline, 1 year following baseline |
| The World Health Organization- Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5) | WHO5 measures general wellbeing. Responses ranges from 0-25, with 25 representing best possible quality of life. | baseline, 4-6 month following baseline, 1 year following baseline |
| Social wellbeing-School Absences | Responses are counted as a continuous variable (number of class days missed) to generate a value. | baseline, 4-6 month following baseline, 1 year following baseline |
| Social wellbeing-Purpose tool | Items measure future aspirations/goals using a Likert scale (1-5) with higher composite scores indicating better social wellbeing. | baseline, 4-6 month following baseline, 1 year following baseline |
| 41102741 | Derived | Cohen AK, Fitzgerald JC, Trejo G, Yalif IU, Wesson PD, Wolfson M, Ballard PJ. The I-ACTED study (investigating action civics training through an experimental design): a cluster randomized controlled trial of a school-based action civics education intervention on adolescent wellbeing. BMC Public Health. 2025 Oct 16;25(1):3513. doi: 10.1186/s12889-025-24838-y. |
| ICF_000.pdf |