Читать книгу Evaluation in Today’s World - Veronica G. Thomas - Страница 124

A randomized, experimental trial of the program was conducted in 1939 and lasted for 5 years on average. Six hundred and fifty boys (later reduced to 506) of average and difficult temperament between the ages of 5 and 13 years (median = 10.5 years) from Cambridge and Somerville, Massachusetts, who were considered at risk were placed in matched pairs, and one member of each pair was randomly assigned to the treatment group. Referred to as directed friendship, the preventive intervention involved individual counseling through a range of activities and home visits with the families. Counselors talked to the boys, took them on trips and to recreational facilities, tutored them in reading and arithmetic, encouraged them to participate in the YMCA and in summer camps, played games with them at the project’s center, and encouraged them to attend church. Boys in the control condition received no special services.