Promoting better futures for idle youth: Evidence from Medellin, Colombia

We are testing three interventions: (i) 8 individual sessions of CBT, (ii) 4 sessions of experience-based group therapy, and (iii) 8 individual sessions of CBT and 4 sessions of experience-based group therapy.

The first treatment arm consists of giving 8 1-hour individual sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy. Each youth in this arm will be assigned to a psychologist trained in CBT, with precise instructions and a curriculum for each session to guarantee the same treatment. Following each session, participants will be required to do some homework to strengthen the effect of the session.

The second treatment arm consists of 4 half-day sessions of experience-based group therapy in groups of around 150 youths. Each one in this arm will be invited to a half-day activity for the session; these sessions will be led by experts on experience-based therapies and working with the youth population.

The third arm consists of exactly the same components as the first and second arms but combined. Each one assigned to this group will receive 8 1-hour individual sessions of CBT and 4 half-day sessions of experience-based group therapy with the same characteristics as the previous arms.

2024-06-03

2024-09-13

We have four primary outcomes:

1. Access to education
2. Access to a formal job
3. Involvement in criminal activities
4. Mental health

We have four primary outcomes:

1. Access to education, measured with the public academic records of school and university enrollment
2. Access to a formal job, measured with social security records. These records allow us to see if anyone had been working, their wage and the type of company for a particular month.
3. Involvement in criminal activities, measured with arrests or other forms of contact with the criminal justice system
4. Mental health, measured with an online survey

This study focuses on idle youths in Medellín, Colombia.

The Secretariat of Youth first pre-registered about 2,500 youth and implemented a survey to measure idleness, mental health, and vulnerability. We first selected an experimental sample of 1,400 by first screening eligibility (idleness) and then randomly sampling a target experimental group stratifying by mental health and social vulnerability.

Then, we randomly assigned participants to each of the four experimental conditions, stratifying by mental health, social vulnerability, and gender. Half of the experimental sample was assigned to treatment, half to the control group, and then within the control group, each person was assigned to one of the three intervention arms.

Randomization was done in an office using a computer. We assigned treatment as follows:

First, we stratified by mental health score (measured with GAD7 and PHQ9 tests), social vulnerability score, and gender, all measured in the preregistration survey. Then, we create a cutoff based on the over-representation of the most vulnerable strata based on both vulnerability scores. Within each stratum, we randomly order and select the first n of each one being n the cutoff. We assign treatment and control for those selected for the sample frame based on whether the order number is even or odd. Finally, within the treatment group, we randomly assign a number from 1 to 3 to identify the treatment arm.

Not available

Computer code

Individual

No

No cluster

1,380 people, as we expect to conduct regressions at the individual level

Total of 1,380.

1. Treatment: 690 people
- Arm 1: 230
- Arm 2: 230
- Arm 3: 230

2. Control: 690

To estimate the MDEs, we use a two-sided two-sample means test assuming a mean of 0, an SD equal to 1, and the desired power of 80%. These results suggest a power of 0.20 SD for each treatment arm.