Peer effects of After-school programs on vulnerability, violence and academic outcomes. Evidence from El Salvador.

Last registered on September 20, 2016

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Peer effects of After-school programs on vulnerability, violence and academic outcomes. Evidence from El Salvador.
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0001602
Initial registration date
September 20, 2016

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
September 20, 2016, 1:55 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Pontifical Catholic University of Chile

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2016-04-28
End date
2016-11-04
Secondary IDs
Abstract
This study aims to measure the impact of after-school clubs (a version of the After-School programs) on measures of violence and vulnerability of students in schools in a developing country, for which there is little evidence of the impact this such interventions. The premise is that clubs improve social skills of children and their ability to handle conflicts, which also allows them to improve their protection factors and their academic performance. This research is relevant to the context in which the clubs are developed: schools located in risky communities in El Salvador, a country with high levels of violence, where it is absolutely necessary to analyze the most efficient way to obtain impacts of these clubs. I also aim to find evidence of peer effects of the intervention, assigning the participants in homogeneous and heterogeneous groups according to their violence level. I want to answer whether tracking participants according to a characteristic could improve the intervention results; or if the outcomes are higher due to peer effects, obtained from heterogeneous groups.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Dinarte, Lelys. 2016. "Peer effects of After-school programs on vulnerability, violence and academic outcomes. Evidence from El Salvador.." AEA RCT Registry. September 20. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.1602-1.0
Former Citation
Dinarte, Lelys. 2016. "Peer effects of After-school programs on vulnerability, violence and academic outcomes. Evidence from El Salvador.." AEA RCT Registry. September 20. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/1602/history/10700
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2016-05-02
Intervention End Date
2016-09-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The key outcomes variables are cognitive and non-cognitive skills. The cognitive skills to be measure are math, reading, science and behavior grades, school assistance and drop-out rates. The non-cognitive skills will be protective and risk factors, such as self-control, self-esteem, risk exposure, conflict management, violent behaviors and emotional regulation.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Some of the outcomes will be constructed using the Risk and Protective Factor Scale from Communities that Care.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Following the methodology applied in Lafortune, Perticar ́a and Tessada (2014) to measure peer effects on a job training for poor women in Chile, I created an experimental design that take ad- vantage of the composition of the students, but maintaining the normal clubs’ implementation. The first phase was the students’ registration to participate in the clubes. They fill out the usual registration form used by the NGO, which collects personal information from participants and from their households and family. I will complement this self reported information with administrative academic data from the schools, such as enrollment, academic results (GPA), absenteeism, and discipline registry. Using these observables, I estimate the index of vulnerability and violence per child (VV Index) predicting the likelihood to commit a violent act using the data set of explanatory variables from the sample of this study. The total enrolled children is randomly assign between three groups: control (25%) heterogeneous VV Index (25%) and homogeneous VV Index (50%). Then, I use the VV Index to rank the stu- dents: the group above the median VV Index (High VV Index, 25% of the full sample) and the group below the median VV Index (Low VV Index, the remaining 25% of the sample).
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
The randomization was made using the STATA software.
Randomization Unit
The randomization unit were individuals, clustered at education level (ciclo)
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
15 cluster, which are education levels, 3 levels per school.
Sample size: planned number of observations
1056 students
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
258 students in the control group, 263 in the heterogeneous group, and 535 in the homogeneous group (267 in homogeneous high IVV and 268 in the homogeneous low IVV)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Ética en Investigación en Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, PUC
IRB Approval Date
2016-04-28
IRB Approval Number
160314001

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials