The Sexual Risk Avoidance Education National Evaluation: Using Co-Regulation in Youth Programs

The Co-Regulation Implementation Study tested a theory that teaching SRAE facilitators co-regulation skills—including fostering warm and responsive relationships with youth, creating a safe and supportive classroom environment, and coaching and modeling self-regulation skills—has the potential to improve facilitation, which will contribute to improvements in youth proximal outcomes. This report presents the results from the Co-Regulation Implementation Study. The primary audience includes administrators and practitioners of SRAE and related youth programming. The information presented may also be of interest to policymakers, researchers, and academics studying co-regulation.

Overall, facilitators thought using the strategies strengthened their facilitation, improved their ability to connect with students, and helped them build a positive program environment. Youth also reacted positively to the strategies. The study team isolated several factors that helped or hindered the implementation of the co-regulation strategies. Facilitators found that contextual factors such as classroom size, classroom type, session length, and teacher buy-in influenced their use of the co-regulation strategies. Facilitators with more experience in SRAE programs and facilitators with an open mindset used the strategies more regularly. Training and ongoing support encouraged facilitators to personalize the strategies and troubleshoot solutions when challenges arose. Planning, practicing, and using a co-facilitation model also helped facilitators use the strategies with more ease. 

Results from the study show the promise of incorporating co-regulation strategies into SRAE programs. Findings shared in this report illuminate how to support facilitators as co-regulators (that is, how to use co-regulation strategies to support youth development of self-regulation skills) and how SRAE facilitators can use co-regulation strategies to improve delivery of their programs.

Mathematica trained facilitators to use a set of co-regulation strategies when delivering their SRAE programming and supported them as they used the strategies. Nine SRAE grantees providing programming in high schools took part in the study during the 2022—2023 school year. To learn about implementation, the SRAENE team collected data from a range of sources and instruments, including surveys completed by facilitators, individual interviews with facilitators, classroom observations, youth focus groups, and daily reports from facilitators about their use of the strategies.

Tingey, L., R. Piatt, A. Hennigar, C. O’Callahan, S. Weaver, and H. Zaveri. (2023). The Sexual Risk Avoidance Education National Evaluation: Using Co-regulation in Youth Programs. OPRE Report 2023-281, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.