Making Every Day Count - Teens

Introduction 5from each of the 10 Clubs to document how staffwork with youth to achieve the outcomes and howyouth perceive those practices.As with all research studies, this evaluation has limitations.An important characteristic of the Clubsis that they welcome all young people who wish toattend; therefore, Clubs do not have waiting lists.In addition, on the assumption that young peopleneed safe places where they can come as needed,Clubs have not traditionally required youth toarrive at particular times or attend particular activities.Attendance in almost all activities is voluntary:Youth can participate in some activities and not inothers, at their discretion. As a result, every youthhas a different experience. Given these characteristicsof the Clubs, we were unable to implementthe most rigorous kind of impact study—an experimentalstudy that randomly assigns young peopleto either a group that attends the programs in theClubs or a control group that does not, and thenexamines differences between the groups at the endof the study period. Doing so would have changedthe very character and mission of the Clubs.There are two other reasons why it was not possiblefor the study to include a comparison group. Whenthe evaluation began in 2005, Clubs were alreadyoperating in most low-income communities andneighborhoods around the country, making it challengingto find comparison cities or communitieswhere there were not Clubs but where the communitieswere similar to those with Clubs. In addition,the purpose of the study was to examine the role ofthe whole Club experience; thus, although studiesof particular programs might provide opportunitiesfor comparison groups of other Club youth who donot take part in a specific activity, that was not feasiblefor this study. 9Despite these challenges, there are several reasonswhy the positive findings from this study build acase for the role Boys & Girls Clubs play in teens’lives and add to our knowledge about the importanceof the type of support Clubs provide, particularlyduring the critical transition from middle tohigh school:• The study followed youth prospectively, ratherthan relying solely on recall. While several alumnistudies have identified strong patterns of positivememories of the role the Club played, thisstudy started with youth in seventh and eighthgrades and followed their progression, longitudinally,to track change over time on outcomes.• The study followed a large sample of youth (422)and gathered survey data from them whetheror not they continued as a regular participantin the Club—or even participated at all. 10 Theresponse rate was 76.3 percent at the follow-upsurvey administration, approximately 30 monthsafter baseline data were collected. Therefore,the outcomes are based on 322 youth, includingthose who were not involved in the Clubsafter the beginning of the study. Gathering datafrom youth, regardless of their level of participation,allows for a better understanding of theyouth’s Club experiences and what else they wereexposed to. Prior studies of outcomes that havedrawn conclusions based solely on youth whoremain in the Clubs and are present on the dayof the follow-up survey offer a more biased andnarrower perspective of experiences.• The study followed youth over a full two-and-ahalf-yearevaluation period (30 months), as theymoved from seventh and eighth to ninth andtenth grades, offering an opportunity to learnabout changes in out-of-school-time participationand track changes in beliefs, behaviors and attitudesat a critical point when youth are movingfrom middle school to high school.• The study is able to link attendance data withsurvey data to examine the relationship betweenparticipation and outcomes and to compareoutcomes for youth with greater and lessparticipation.• In-depth qualitative interviews with 56 ninthgraders and 86 staff provide data that allow formore detailed and nuanced exploration of howthe Clubs achieve their goals, as well as the challengesthey face.Thus, the findings from this study provide importantinformation about how these young peoplechanged over time, the relationship between participationin the Clubs and the outcomes being examined,and the youth’s and staff’s perceptions of howthe Clubs influence teens’ lives.