A series of realist evaluations of multi-component programmes with disengaged young people: What works, for whom, and in what contexts?

Periods spent in the absence of education, employment, or training (NEET) are associated with adverse psychological wellbeing, poverty, social marginalisation, criminal behaviour, and premature mortality. As such, implementing effective programmes to re-engage young people who are classified, or are at risk of becoming classified, as NEET is of great importance to these individuals, family, and society more broadly. To this end, the aim of the current thesis was to conduct three realist evaluations to understand how and under which circumstances multi-component programmes may impact the engagement, behavioural, and psychosocial outcomes of disengaged students and young people who are not in education, employment, or training. Study 1 consisted of a realist evaluation of a six-month multi-component programme for year ten (aged 14-15 years) disengaged students across three schools. In Study 2, the findings and refined programme theories from Study 1 were subsequently tested through a 10-week multi-component programme with disengaged year eight (aged 12-13 years) students and evaluated over ten months. Informed by the findings from the first two studies, the final study comprised the development, implementation, and evaluation of a four-week multi-component programme utilising appreciative inquiry as a theoretical framework to re-engage young people (aged 17-23 years) who were outside of education, employment, and training. Overall, the findings from the three studies highlighted the potential benefits of utilising a multi-component programme to re-engage young people. Specifically, context-mechanism-outcome configurations and refined programme theories relating to the development of trust, positions of authority, the power of collective experience, exploration of possible life directions, active learning, deviant peer contagion, and the reinforcement and enactment of hegemonic masculine identities were developed. Collectively, the results provide a detailed and practical understanding of the architecture of programmes that can benefit disengaged young people and help advance the implementation of future programmes for working with disengaged populations.

Dynamic pathways between rejection and antisocial behavior in peer networks: Update and test of confluence model

The confluence model theorizes that dynamic transactions between peer rejection and deviant peer clustering amplify antisocial behavior (AB) within the school context during adolescence. Little is known about the links between peer rejection and AB as embedded in changing networks. Using longitudinal social network analysis, we investigated the interplay between rejection, deviant peer clustering, and AB in an ethnically diverse sample of students attending public middle schools (N = 997; 52.7% boys). Adolescents completed peer nomination reports of rejection and antisocial behavior in Grades 6–8. Results revealed that rejection status was associated with friendship selection, and adolescents became rejected if they were friends with others who were rejected. Youth befriended others with similar levels of AB. Significant patterns of peer influence were documented for AB and rejection. As hypothesized, rejected youth with low AB were more likely to affiliate with others with high AB instead of similarly low AB. In contrast, nonrejected youth preferred to befriend others with similarly high or low AB. Results support an updated confluence model of a joint interplay between rejection and AB as ecological conditions that lead to self-organization into deviant clusters in which peer contagion on problem behaviors operates.

Positive and Negative Peer Contagion In Relation To Quality of Friend and Friendship

Peer contagion describes a mutual influence process that occurs between an individual and a peer and includes behaviors and emotions that potentially undermine one’s own development or cause harm to others. The influence process often occurs outside of awareness; participants may not intend to influence their peers, but they engage in relationship behaviors that satisfy immediate needs for an audience or companionship, and these behaviors inadvertently influence themselves or others. It can be of two types positive and negative peer contagion. Negative peer contagion include- aggression where as positive would include altruistic behavior. Different ways to reduce peer contagion would that include evaluation of aggression, intervention strategies for youth. The present study conducted on 250 adolescents (age between 13 to15). Then on the basis of screening total number of 120 subjects were selected and divided into two equal groups of 60 subjects; each group had 30 low and 30 high quality of friendship group. They were selected from different schools of South Delhi. Tools used in the study are Aggression Questionnaire, Self-report altruistic scale (SRA), Quality of friendship questionnaire; Quality of friend (Interview schedule).The result suggested that there is no interaction between quality of friend and the quality of friendship in the positive peer contagion. But desirable friend and undesirable friend and high and low quality of friendship can distinguished on the positive peer contagion. On the negative peer contagion there is interaction between the quality of friendship and quality of friend and also high quality of friendship is highly related to it, also negative peer contagion is more related to undesirable friend.

Mechanisms and Processes of Peer Contagion

Peer contagion refers to the process of mutual influence that occurs between an individual and a peer. Historically, peer contagion has included influence on behaviors and emotions with potential negative developmental consequences, including aggression, bullying, weapon carrying, disordered eating, drug use, and depression. Increasingly, however, “contagion” of positive behaviors and emotions is being investigated as well. Nevertheless, in general, the study of peer influence and contagion processes has been a relatively recent one, with increased interest since the late 20th century. Mechanisms of peer influence like peer coercion, deviancy training, and even evolutionary and neural explanations for peer effects are all being increasingly studied in natural and laboratory settings. Much of the literature on peer influence focuses on childhood and adolescence, and for good reason. An abundance of evidence suggests that peer influence is strongest and most impactful among youth, though to a lesser degree adults can still be subject to social influence by their peers. Additionally, adolescence in particular seems to be a critical developmental period for social and neural processes critical to engaging with peers. Peer influence need not be intentional; in fact, individuals may engage in relationship behaviors that satisfy immediate needs for an audience or companionship, and inadvertently influence themselves or others. Peer influence processes are ubiquitous, occurring both in natural peer interaction settings and intervention settings that purposely aggregate children and adolescents together. The issue of peer contagion in intervention settings is an important one, with evidence suggesting at least some interventions that aggregate high-risk youth can have unintended, harmful iatrogenic effects.