Rigorous Evaluation of the READY to Stand Curriculum to Prevent the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

Rigorous Evaluation of the READY to Stand Curriculum as a Tool to Prevent the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Among Racially and Ethnically Diverse Urban Youth (PHASE III: Quasi Experimental Trial)

The overall goal of the five-year project is to conduct both a process and rigorous outcome evaluation of The Set Me Free Project (SMFP)'s READY to Stand (RTS)© curriculum with an eye toward widespread dissemination to other U.S. communities, if deemed effective. Broadly, the investigators seek to determine the effect participation has on students: reductions in commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) perpetration (the primary outcome); reductions in CSEC victimization, teen dating violence (TDV), and sexual violence victimization and perpetration; as well as increases in bystander intervention in CSEC situations compared to participants in the control condition (secondary outcomes).

The commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) is a public health crisis in the United States. Research has documented risk and protective factors across the social ecology for CSEC, that many perpetrators (traffickers, clients, recruiters) of CSEC are peers (e.g., romantic partners) and adolescents report opportunities to intervene in situations of peer victimization (although not necessarily specific to CSEC). Prevention efforts with adolescents that seek to (1) reduce risk for CSEC perpetration; (2) reduce risk for CSEC victimization; and (3) increase positive bystander intervention in situations of CSEC is urgently needed. Thus, the goal of this multi-stakeholder collaboration-which includes researchers, educators, practitioners, and youth-is to conduct both a process and rigorous outcome evaluation of The Set Me Free Project© (SMFP)'s READY to Stand (RTS)© curriculum-with an eye toward widespread dissemination to other U.S. communities, if deemed effective.

The RTS programming is for both students and school personnel. Student programming includes six, 45-minute modules implemented to high school students in mixed gender groups of ~25 students and provides students with CSEC psychoeducation, healthy relationship skills, identification of safe people, bystander intervention in CSEC situations, shifting school norms to be intolerant of all forms of violence, and valuing of self and others. School personnel participate in a training to equip them with skills to effectively respond to students' disclosures of CSEC, enhance cultural humility, and reinforce programming messages. Despite its potential for reducing CSEC, the RTS© has never been evaluated.

The investigators will conduct a quasi-experimental design study in which four traditional high schools and two alternative high schools (not including the two high schools that participated in NCT05988398) are assigned to treatment or control conditions. Students enrolled in spring elective courses (e.g., healthy relationships, psychology) in the four traditional high schools and all students in the two alternative high schools (n=3,218 [enrolled]) will complete baseline and immediate post, 6-, 12-, and 18-month follow-up surveys to test the hypothesis that participation in the RTS© program will lead to reductions in CSEC perpetration (primary outcome), as well as reductions in CSEC victimization and teen dating violence (TDV) and sexual violence victimization and perpetration, and increases in bystander intervention in CSEC situations compared to participants in the control condition (secondary outcomes) (Aim 2a). The investigators will assess mediators and demographic moderators of program impact (Aim 2b). Document via program observations of student and school personnel programming (Aim 2c), post-session surveys (n=1,459 students [enrolled in treatment schools]; n=150 school personnel [enrolled in treatment schools]) (Aim 2d), and post program implementation of key informant and stakeholder interviews (n=40: program facilitators [n=10], students [n=20], school personnel [n=10]) (Aim 2e) variations in implementation, unanticipated challenges, lessons learned, and perceptions of program impact. Determine costs associated with the program implementation (both student and school personnel programming) to inform future economic evaluation of the RTS (Aim 2f).

Inclusion Criteria:

• enrolled in in Grade 9, 10, 11, or 12 at one of the eligible schools in the district
• able to understand spoken English

Exclusion Criteria:

• enrolled in either of the two schools involved in the corresponding Open Pilot Trial (NCT05988398)