Testing the Causal Effects of a Civic Engagement Intervention on Health and Wellbeing Among Youth (I-ACTED)

NCT04514133 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: IRB00066103
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 1,659
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The purpose of this research is to understand how participating or not participating in an action civics curriculum may affect the health and wellbeing of young people. Participants will be chosen from students who attend certain schools that choose to participate in the action civics curriculum. Participation in this research involves completing surveys during class time in the Spring and Fall 2021-2022 semesters and then completing online surveys outside of class in the future.

Conditions

Social Interaction; Health Attitude; Mental Health Wellness 1

Keywords

civic engagement; health; social wellbeing; behavioral health

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (3)

• Youth Inventory of Involvement (activism, political engagement, and leadership items)

  Questionnaire measures civic engagement using a Likert scale (1-5) with higher composite scores indicating more involvement in each domain

  Baseline

• Youth Inventory of Involvement (activism, political engagement, and leadership items)

  Questionnaire measures civic engagement using a Likert scale (1-5) with higher composite scores indicating more involvement in each domain

  4-6 month following baseline

• Youth Inventory of Involvement (activism, political engagement, and leadership items)

  Questionnaire measures civic engagement using a Likert scale (1-5) with higher composite scores indicating more involvement in each domain

  1 year following baseline

Secondary Outcomes (2)

• Community Connection Scale

  baseline, 4-6 month following baseline, 1 year following baseline

• Questionnaire from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health

  baseline, 4-6 month following baseline, 1 year following baseline

Other Outcomes (5)

• Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D)

  baseline, 4-6 month following baseline, 1 year following baseline

• Tobacco, Alcohol, Prescription medication, and other Substance use Tool part 2 (TAPS- 2)

  baseline, 4-6 month following baseline, 1 year following baseline

• The World Health Organization- Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5)

  baseline, 4-6 month following baseline, 1 year following baseline

Study Arms (2)

Action Civics program

EXPERIMENTAL

Students in this arm will take part in an Action Civics (AC) program. AC delivers action civics programming to young people from diverse backgrounds nationwide. AC offers a school-based action civics curriculum in which classes collectively choose a local issue, learn strategies and skills for taking civic action, develop an action plan, and take action on their selected local issue. Students, as a class, tackle topics ranging from health-related (e.g., health of school lunches) to safety-related (e.g. lack of crosswalks) to community social issues (e.g., community-police relations).

Behavioral: Participating in Action Civics program

No Action Civics program

NO INTERVENTION

Students in this arm will receive no intervention.

Interventions

Participating in Action Civics program BEHAVIORAL

Students in school classrooms participating in Action Civics program

Action Civics program

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 10 Years - 20 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• Currently enrolled Middle or High School student
• Enrolled in a course with a teacher from a school participating in the study

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Wake Forest University Health Sciences: lead
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Wake Forest School of Medicine

Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27157, United States

Location

Related Publications (3)

• Ballard PJ, Cohen AK, Littenberg-Tobias J. Action Civics for Promoting Civic Development: Main Effects of Program Participation and Differences by Project Characteristics. Am J Community Psychol. 2016 Dec;58(3-4):377-390. doi: 10.1002/ajcp.12103.

  PMID: 27982470 BACKGROUND

• Ballard PJ, Hoyt LT, Pachucki MC. Impacts of Adolescent and Young Adult Civic Engagement on Health and Socioeconomic Status in Adulthood. Child Dev. 2019 Jul;90(4):1138-1154. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12998. Epub 2018 Jan 23.

  PMID: 29359473 BACKGROUND

• Cohen AK, Fitzgerald JC, Trejo G, Yalif IU, Wesson PD, Wolfson M, Ballard PJ. The I-ACTED study (investigating action civics training through an experimental design): a cluster randomized controlled trial of a school-based action civics education intervention on adolescent wellbeing. BMC Public Health. 2025 Oct 16;25(1):3513. doi: 10.1186/s12889-025-24838-y.

  PMID: 41102741 DERIVED

Study Officials

• Parissa J Ballard, PhD

  Assistant Professor

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: August 11, 2020
• First Posted: August 14, 2020
• Study Start: June 24, 2021
• Primary Completion: August 15, 2025
• Study Completion: August 15, 2025
• Last Updated: February 27, 2026

Record last verified: 2025-07

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)