The authors describe social validity assessment of mindfulness education and practices among high school students (N = 84) participating in a 10-week instructional program. The participants rated their satisfaction with and acceptance of several program components, content areas, and outcomes, as well as their engagement in specific mindfulness…

As 4-H evolves to include a wide breadth of youths' modern interests, innovative educational opportunities and evaluation practices become necessary. Horsemanship and safety-based horse camps were created in response to a statewide challenge to develop competitive 4-H members and retain those members as they approach adolescence. This article…

The evaluation reported in this article examined the effectiveness of a statewide bullying prevention program, Be SAFE. Be SAFE involves use of a positive youth development approach to influence peer groups rather than individual bullies or victims. Through the use of pre- and postprogram questionnaires, we found increases in youths' knowledge of…

Background: Due to the rising demands for a Canadian workforce with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)-related education, there is a need to increase youth engagement in STEM education and programming. Research, however, has shown that youth residing in low-income communities are disproportionately affected by psychosocial barriers,…

In 2014 the Oregon 4-H program adopted a new program model to describe and evaluate the impact of 4-H on youths. The model is based on promoting thriving in young people, with an emphasis on high program quality. This article discusses the impact on thriving in 378 youth participants of the 4-H Summer Conference (4-HSC) program. The results of the…

The use of peer education has been well documented within the discipline of health promotion, but not within the youth mental health domain. This paper describes an evaluation of an innovative schools-based peer education training programme that involved preparing young people to deliver a mental health workshop to their peers. Participants…

The incidence of overweight and obesity among children and young adolescents remains unacceptably high and places our youth at risk for several negative outcomes. Recognizing the need for a youth-focused weight management program in our community, the researcher developed, implemented, and evaluated a small pilot study, FitKids. The aims of…

A key challenge in formative evaluation is to gather appropriate evidence to inform the continuous improvement of initiatives. In the absence of outcome data, the programme evaluator often must rely on the perceptions of beneficiaries and staff in generating insight into what is making a difference. The article describes the approach adopted in an…

In keeping with the overarching RadioActive101 (RA101) spirit and ethos, this report is the product of collaborative and joined-up thinking from within the European consortium spread across five countries. As such, it is not simply a single voice reporting on the experiences and knowledge gained during the project. Rather it is a range of…

In this paper an evaluation study of a public programme financing a regional network of 157 youth centres in the South of Italy is presented. A theory-based evaluation model was adopted to explore the causal links between different types of participation experience. Evaluation questions focused on three main issues are: the perception of…

Background: Several studies have shown that substance use levels among adolescents living in residential youth care are high. However, it is not clear to what extent adolescents initiate (heavy) substance during their stay and to what extent these rates are higher than would be expected based on their risk profile. Objective: The aim of the…

Youth suicide prevention is an important public health issue. However, few prevention programs are theory driven or systematically evaluated. This study evaluated Connect, a community-based youth suicide prevention program. Analysis of pre and posttraining questionnaires from 648 adults and 204 high school students revealed significant changes in…

During the 2009-2010 academic year, 10 schools participated in the Meaning of Life educational program, an adaption of the popular U.S. Laws of Life program. The program sought to encourage each participant to develop a personal approach to finding meaning in life. To evaluate the success of the program, we conducted a study to compare measures of…

Purpose - This research project has investigated the "Company Programme" of the charity YE and how effective it is at increasing Life Skills in young people. Data has been obtained using student questionnaires and teacher interviews. Previous studies have been completed on "Life Skills" and "Enterprise Programmes",…

This evaluation examines the effectiveness of the Saltspring Women Opposed to Violence and Abuse (SWOVA) Community Development and Research Society's "Respectful Relationships" (R+R) program. R+R is a school-community partnership program that focuses on youth development of social competencies that underlie social justice. Youth in…