Challenges and strategies for delivering morality interventions in different youth contexts: The Compass Project intervention

• In Event: Applying moral frameworks to theory and practice

Abstract

This paper presents the development and pilot implementation of The Compass Project intervention programme, which was developed in response to a well-evidenced link between weak morality, emotional functioning and regulation, and youth antisocial behaviour and crime. The ways in which these traits can be strengthened in adolescence by participation in intervention programmes is generally not well understood. This work seeks to fill a gap in the literature exploring whether morality strengthening can ultimately lead to a reduction in antisocial behaviour and crime. The Compass Project nine-week pilot feasibility study, designed to facilitate positive attitudinal and behavioural outcomes in young people, was delivered in the form of a Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) with a sample of 11–17-year-olds at a youth work charity in Cambridge, UK. It is notoriously difficult to access, recruit, and retain young people in youth intervention programmes and encourage them to be engaged, enthused, and task-focused during programme sessions. I identify five challenges faced by researchers conducting youth intervention studies; access, recruitment, continued attendance, nature of participation, and data collection. I develop strategies to minimise the compromised research quality that can result from experiencing such obstacles. Successes and lessons are included from The Compass Project. I propose that researchers replicate our success by building rapport and trust with participants and youth organisations, building a participant sense of community, and improve upon our design by scrutinising the format, accessibility, and length of data measures. I discuss the potential for The Compass project intervention to be administered in different youth settings including youth work charities, schools, and youth offending teams.

Dr Neema Trivedi-Bateman is Lecturer in Criminology at the Criminology, Sociology, and Social Policy department at Loughborough University. Study funding: The British Academy, Loughborough University, and Anglia Ruskin University.

Author

• Neema Trivedi-Bateman, Loughborough University