Prior evidence on uniformed youth group impacts lacked robust designs, with no comparison groups and reliance on self-report¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r3 · q1
Currency · newest study 2016 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q1 i? Existing studies of uniformed youth groups and youth social action mostly lacked comparison groups or randomisation and relied on participants' self-reports, leaving the field without robust evaluation evidence. → Gorard et al. 2016

Evidence¶

Gorard et al. 2016¶

Stephen Gorard, Beng Huat See, Nadia Siddiqui, Emma Smith and Patrick White. (2016). Youth Social Action Trials: Youth United — Evaluation report and executive summary. Education Endowment Foundation. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED581107

q1 · i? · causal · r3

Narrative review of background evidence: the report describes prior studies (e.g. Ockenden and Stuart 2014; Moon et al. 2010) as based on volunteer self-reports with no comparison groups, calling causal claims from them strong but unjustified. This trial is presented as the first large-scale UK RCT of uniformed group participation covering academic attainment.

"There is currently a lack of robust evaluation of the impact of organised uniformed youth groups. Also, none of the studies so far has as sessed the impact of youth participation in social action activities on academic outcomes."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• School-based uniformed youth group participation showed no evidence of benefit for pupils' academic attainment, with small negative but low-quality effect estimates — related
• Pupils, teachers and parents held very positive views about the uniformed youth group intervention — related
• Participation in uniformed youth groups is associated with small improvements in self-reported self-confidence and teamwork — related