This report presents the findings of an independent evaluation, undertaken by the Centre for Effective Education at Queen’s University Belfast, of the Mate-Tricks pro-social behaviour after-school programme. Mate-Tricks is an after-school programme designed to promote pro-social behaviour in Tallaght West (Dublin). It is aimed at improving pro-social behaviour amongst children aged 9-10 years (Irish 4th class). The intended outcomes of this programme include enhanced children’s pro-social development, confidence and self-esteem, problem-solving skills and reduced anti-social behaviour. This evaluation primarily focused on assessing the impact of Mate-Tricks on children’s outcomes. The programme is part of a wider 10-year strategy that began in 2003, led by the Childhood Development Initiative (CDI), which aimed to improve the health, safety and learning of children. Mate-Tricks is a bespoke intervention that combines elements from two pro-social behaviour programmes: the Strengthening Families Program (SFP) and Coping Power Program (CPP). The programme is a one-year multi-session after-school programme comprising 59 children-only sessions, 6 parent-only sessions and 3 family sessions, with each session lasting 1½ hours. The evaluation of Mate-Tricks utilised a 3-year rolling cohort randomised controlled trial design. The rolling cohort nature of the study means that the randomisation was carried out in three calendar years independently and combined after the trial to produce a sample with sufficient size and study power to detect effects if they were present. The children were referred from 7 schools and were individually randomly assigned within each of these schools. Each school contributed children for each cohort and therefore there was an experimental balance. In short, the data is individually pupil randomised and clustered at school level. Overall, the trial had two arms i.e., children were randomly allocated to the intervention group (which received the programme), or the control group (which did not receive the programme). A total of 589 children randomised to the intervention (n=304) and control conditions (n=285).
The evaluation included a randomised controlled trial (RCT) to measure the effects of the programme on child outcomes and a process evaluation that investigated its implementation. The children were randomly selected to the intervention or control group. There were 15 places available in the programme for 5 settings and 30 places available in one setting. Three cohorts of children were necessary in order to achieve a large enough sample to rigorously assess the programme’s effects. In Mate-Tricks, children completed pre-tests at the beginning of the programme in September and post-tests at the end of the programme in June. A rolling cohort design also ensured that the impact of Mate-Tricks was looked at in a longitudinal way (i.e. over the three cohorts), as well as providing a sufficient sample size for statistical comparisons and effect size calculations. In total, 592 children were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups over the three cohorts. 347 children and 122 parents completed both pre- and post-test questionnaires.
Face-to-face interview: PAPI
Self-administered questionnaire: Paper
Focus group
