This study assesses a cognitive behavioral approach for improving life outcomes of underserved young women.
This evaluation of the Working on Womanhood (WOW) intervention on the basis of its ability to ameliorate mental health symptoms found that WOW appears highly cost-effective when judged on the basis of standard cost-utility metrics used to evaluate medical and public health interventions. These benefits were achieved within the challenging real-world environment of ten Chicago public high schools. The WOW intervention induces marked and statistically significant improvement in depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms among the young women who participate in this intervention. WOW was not designed to move academic outcomes such as standardized test scores and grades. And over the period observed, WOW did not improve these outcomes. At a per-participant cost of $2,300, WOW provides one promising model that can be replicated at scale within resource-challenged public schools across the country. In this study, researchers sought to work closely with Youth Guidance to learn more about the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral mentoring (CBM) programs as a means to improve mental health outcomes for adolescent girls growing up in Chicago neighborhoods that are experiencing dramatically elevated levels of crime. Researchers worked with Youth Guidance to execute a rigorous randomized controlled trial (RCT) testing the WOW intervention in academic years (AY) 2017-18 and 2018-19. In the face of increasingly constrained budgets, it becomes even more important to identify and test programs that are both effective and cost-effective to help policymakers focus scarce resources on efforts that accomplish the most social good per dollar spent. Young women, particularly those attending school in low-income, predominantly minority communities, experience high rates of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other mental health challenges. Designing and fielding feasible and cost-effective interventions to address these challenges remains a key challenge.