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Field
Last Published
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Before
December 21, 2020 05:13 AM
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After
April 16, 2025 08:58 AM
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Field
Intervention (Public)
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Before
Our RCT investigates the effects of a nationwide German mentoring program which provides one-to-one mentoring to disadvantaged adolescents in eighth or ninth grade in lower-track secondary schools (Hauptschule or equivalent). University students act as mentors. The main goal of the program is to enable the transition from lower-secondary school to apprenticeship programs or upper-secondary schools. The program aims at providing career guidance, establishing career visions, and fostering self-esteem and trust in the mentees’ own skills and abilities. Each mentoring pair is free to choose the content and intensity of their relationship, striving for at least bi-weekly meetings. While the mentoring activities include joint spare-time activities such as watching movies or visiting the zoo, mentors may also counsel mentees how to cope with stressful situations at school or in the family, provide occupational orientation, and assist in the job application process.
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After
Our RCT investigates the effects of a nationwide German mentoring program which provides one-to-one mentoring to disadvantaged adolescents in eighth or ninth grade in lower-track secondary schools (Hauptschule or equivalent). University students act as mentors. The main goal of the program is to enable the transition from lower-secondary school to apprenticeship programs or upper-secondary schools. The program aims at providing career guidance, establishing career visions, and fostering self-esteem and trust in the mentees’ own skills and abilities. Each mentoring pair is free to choose the content and intensity of their relationship, striving for at least bi-weekly meetings. While the mentoring activities include joint spare-time activities such as watching movies or visiting the zoo, mentors may also counsel mentees how to cope with stressful situations at school or in the family, provide occupational orientation, and assist in the job application process.
Update April 2025:
We plan to conduct a survey to obtain self-reported information on adolescents’ labor-market situation at age 20-25. Further, we plan to merge our data to administrative labor-market data from the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) of the German Federal Employment Agency. We have already collected consent to the data merge in an earlier survey wave.
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Primary Outcomes (End Points)
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Before
The primary outcomes are specified in our pre-analysis plan (contained in the grant application registered with the sponsors on May 12, 2015) and the IRB application (granted on February 3, 2016). Specifically, we investigate three outcomes that are likely to be predictive of adolescents’ long-term labor-market success:
- School grades in math (cognitive component)
- Patience and social skills (behavioral component)
- Labor-market orientation (volitional component)
- We also combine these individual components to an index of labor-market pro-spects, which is the main outcome we study.
In the future, we plan to field further waves of data collection. In these waves, we will focus on the effects of the mentoring program on individuals’ actual labor market out-comes, among others, obtained qualification, employment status, and earnings. To be able to observe individuals after their labor-market entry, the end date of our trial is in 2030.
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After
The primary outcomes are specified in our pre-analysis plan (contained in the grant application registered with the sponsors on May 12, 2015) and the IRB application (granted on February 3, 2016). Specifically, we investigate three outcomes that are likely to be predictive of adolescents’ long-term labor-market success:
- School grades in math (cognitive component)
- Patience and social skills (behavioral component)
- Labor-market orientation (volitional component)
- We also combine these individual components to an index of labor-market pro-spects, which is the main outcome we study.
In the future, we plan to field further waves of data collection. In these waves, we will focus on the effects of the mentoring program on individuals’ actual labor market out-comes, among others, obtained qualification, employment status, and earnings. To be able to observe individuals after their labor-market entry, the end date of our trial is in 2030.
Update April 2025:
We will evaluate the long-term impact of participation in the mentoring program on the current labor-market situation, e.g., current employment status, completion of apprenticeship (yes/no), earnings, and satisfaction with the current situation.
As our prior analysis established significant effect heterogeneity by socioeconomic status (SES), we will conduct all main analyses by SES.
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Planned Number of Observations
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Before
300-400 individuals. Our pre-analysis plan and the IRB application already specified that sampling would proceed in two cohorts to increase the number of observations.
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After
308 individuals. Our pre-analysis plan and the IRB application specified that sampling would proceed in two cohorts to increase the number of observations.
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Field
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
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Before
There will two experimental groups:
Control group: about 150-200 individual, independent observations
Treatment group: about 150-200 individual, independent observations
The mentoring program mainly targets highly disadvantaged adolescents. Thus, in the pre-analysis plan and the IRB application, it is specified that the population under study would be low-SES adolescents. However, during the initial phase of the evaluation, we learned that a non-negligible share of participants has a family background that cannot necessarily be considered as highly disadvantaged. The mentoring program is active in lower-track schools in disadvantaged neighborhoods in larger cities, each of which leads to a disproportionately high share of disadvantaged youths. However, the program does not implement any screening or selection of applying adolescents within the participating schools, leading to the fact that participants have rather diverse family backgrounds. Thus, our analysis separates between low-SES adolescents (who are the main target group of the program) and higher-SES adolescents.
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After
There will two experimental groups:
Control group: 155 individual, independent observations
Treatment group: 153 individual, independent observations
The mentoring program mainly targets highly disadvantaged adolescents. Thus, in the pre-analysis plan and the IRB application, it is specified that the population under study would be low-SES adolescents. However, during the initial phase of the evaluation, we learned that a non-negligible share of participants has a family background that cannot necessarily be considered as highly disadvantaged. The mentoring program is active in lower-track schools in disadvantaged neighborhoods in larger cities, each of which leads to a disproportionately high share of disadvantaged youths. However, the program does not implement any screening or selection of applying adolescents within the participating schools, leading to the fact that participants have rather diverse family backgrounds. Thus, our analysis separates between low-SES adolescents (who are the main target group of the program) and higher-SES adolescents.
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Keyword(s)
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Before
Education, Labor
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After
Education, Labor
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Field
Secondary Outcomes (End Points)
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Before
None
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After
None.
Update April 2025:
Educational attainment (completed schooling and level of schooling) .
Labor-market relevant skills (e.g. prosociality, conscientiousness, and patience) .
Civic and political engagement, preferences and attitudes (e.g., volunteering, political party attachment, voting behavior, party preferences, and trust in government and other political actors).
Heterogeneous effects
As our prior analysis established significant effect heterogeneity by socioeconomic status (SES), we will conduct all main analyses by SES. We will also look at heterogeneity by gender.
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Building on Existing Work
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Before
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After
Yes
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