Washington State Institute for Public Policy

Reconnecting Youth
Public Health & Prevention: School-based
Literature review updated December 2014.

Reconnecting Youth, a school-based curriculum program for high school students, is designed to address a variety of behaviors, such as attendance, academic achievement, disruptive behavior, and substance abuse. The program targets youth who have been identified as already experimenting with drugs and who have a high potential for dropping out, as identified by school records or personnel. By building life skills, fostering a bond to the school and family, and encouraging self-esteem, the program aims to build positive resistance skills and decrease risk factors.

META-ANALYSIS	CITATIONS

**Meta-analysis** is a statistical method to combine the results from separate studies on a program, policy, or topic in order to estimate its effect on an outcome. WSIPP systematically evaluates all credible evaluations we can locate on each topic. The **outcomes** measured are the types of program impacts that were measured in the research literature (for example, crime or educational attainment). **Treatment N** represents the total number of individuals or units in the treatment group across the included studies.

An **effect size** (ES) is a standard metric that summarizes the degree to which a program or policy affects a measured outcome. If the effect size is positive, the outcome increases. If the effect size is negative, the outcome decreases.

**Adjusted effect sizes** are used to calculate the benefits from our benefit cost model. WSIPP may adjust effect sizes based on methodological characteristics of the study. For example, we may adjust effect sizes when a study has a weak research design or when the program developer is involved in the research. The magnitude of these adjustments varies depending on the topic area.

WSIPP may also adjust the second ES measurement. Research shows the magnitude of some effect sizes decrease over time. For those effect sizes, we estimate outcome-based adjustments which we apply between the **first time ES is estimated** and the **second time ES is estimated**. We also report the **unadjusted effect size** to show the effect sizes before any adjustments have been made. More details about these adjustments can be found in our Technical Documentation.
Meta-Analysis of Program Effects
Outcomes measured	Primary or secondary participant	No. of effect sizes	Treatment N	Adjusted effect sizes (ES) and standard errors (SE) used in the benefit-cost analysis						Unadjusted effect size (random effects model)
				First time ES is estimated			Second time ES is estimated			Unadjusted effect size (random effects model)
				ES	SE	Age	ES	SE	Age	ES	p-value
Alcohol use in high school	Primary	1	615	0.019	0.071	15	0.019	0.071	18	0.019	0.784
Smoking in high school	Primary	1	615	0.182	0.071	15	0.182	0.071	18	0.182	0.010

Citations Used in the Meta-Analysis

Cho, H., Hallfors, D.D., & Sanchez, V. (2005). Evaluation of a high school peer group intervention for at-risk youth. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 33(3), 363-374.