Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting
Date Submitted: Oct 30, 2018
Date Accepted: Feb 25, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
A pilot randomized control trial of a 4-week electronic mentoring employment intervention for youth with physical disabilities
ABSTRACT
Background:
Youth with disabilities are more likely to live in poverty and to be unemployed compared to youth without a disability. Such trends are often a result of a lack of supports, inaccessible jobs, environmental barriers, and discriminatory attitudes towards people with disabilities. Youth with disabilities also face barriers in accessing vocational preparation programs. One encouraging way that could help to address challenges that youth encounter is by providing support through electronic mentoring.
Objective:
The objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of a 4-week online peer electronic mentoring employment intervention for youth with physical disabilities.
Methods:
We conducted a pilot randomized control trial (RCT) to evaluate our intervention, Empowering youth towards employment. Participants included youth aged 15-25 who were randomly assigned to an experimental (mentored) or control (non-mentored group). Our employment preparation intervention involved having trained youth mentors (i.e., near peers who also had a disability) lead online discussion forums while offering peer support and resources. The intervention involved 12 modules (3 topics a week for 4 weeks). Primary outcomes focused on implementation (i.e., feasibility and acceptability) while secondary outcomes focused on effectiveness (i.e., measures of self-determination, career maturity and social support).
Results:
Twenty-eight youth (mean age 19.62 3.53 (SD), 50% female) completed the RCT, in three intervention groups and two control groups (intervention n= 17, control n=9). Participants reported satisfaction with the program and that it was feasible and acceptable. Youth’s mean engagement level with the program was 6.44/10 (SD 2.33) for the experimental group and 5.56 3.53 for controls. Participants in the intervention did not demonstrate any significant improvements in social support, career maturity or self-determination compared to the control group. No adverse events were reported.
Conclusions:
The ‘Empowering youth towards employment’ electronic mentoring intervention needs further testing with a larger sample and different length of formats to understand how it may have an impact on employment outcomes youth with disabilities. Clinical Trial: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02522507;
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