ClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT05619523DIYUpdated Sep 2, 2025Results posted

Developing Inclusive Youth: Promoting Intergroup Friendships and Inclusive Classrooms in Childhood

An interventional study of Developing Inclusive Youth (DIY) in Social Exclusion, Prejudice, Racial and Prejudice, sponsored by University of Maryland, College Park. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 7 Years to 12 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-09-02.

Sponsored by University of Maryland, College Park · Not applicable, Interventional, and Basic science

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
885
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
7 Years to 12 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to test the beneficial impacts of a web based intervention program called Developing Inclusive Youth for children in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade. The main questions it aims to answer are:

  • Does the Developing Inclusive Youth (DIY) program, which is a web-based curriculum tool with a teacher-led classroom discussion, reduce prejudicial attitudes and biases as well as increase intergroup friendships for a sample of 8 -11 year old children enrolled in 3rd , 4th, and 5th grade U.S. classrooms?
  • Does the Developing Inclusive Youth (DIY) program lead to grade-related, gender-related and ethnic-related differences regarding reducing prejudicial attitudes and increasing intergroup friendships?
  • Does the Developing Inclusive Youth (DIY) program change teacher attitudes regarding the malleability of prejudice, the importance of intergroup friendships, and comfort levels with discussing social inclusion and exclusion experiences in the classroom?

Student participants will take 15-20 minutes to use a Chrome notebook and headphones to access the online tool and the teacher will then lead a classroom discussion lasting 25-30 minutes. The intervention program will occur once a week for eight weeks.

The student outcome measures, given at pretest and posttest, are also assessed with Chrome notebooks while children are sitting at their desks in the classroom. The outcome measures take 25-30 minutes. Researchers will compare children in the intervention classes to children in other classes of the same grade at their school to see if the tool promotes positive peer relationships and reduces prejudice and bias.

Teacher participants will take a 25-minute online pretest and posttest survey in their classroom to assess their theories of prejudice, their awareness of their students' intergroup friendships, comfort with discussing peer social inclusion and exclusion in class, and their awareness of student experiences of exclusion.

Read the detailed description

A within school randomized control trial intervention design will be implemented to promote intergroup relationships and reduce prejudice in childhood for children between 7 and 12 years of age, enrolled in grades 3, 4, and 5 in U.S. elementary public schools. The intervention students watch an online tool for 15 minutes accompanied by a 30-minute teacher-led classroom discussion. Students in the control condition will be business as usual. There will be 720 students and 36 teachers, reflecting an ethnically diverse population. The outcome measures assess school belonging, peer and teacher classroom support, trait attributions of diverse peers, social evaluations about intergroup exclusion as well as the likelihood of exclusion, and math and science competency beliefs of diverse peers. All teachers participate in a 2-hour training session prior to the start of the school semester. All participating students have active parental consent. All teachers take a survey about their theories of prejudice, awareness of student experiences with exclusion, and strategies for talking about peer conflict in the classroom prior to the beginning of the program and provide their assent. There is high fidelity of the program due to the delivery of the information which is online. There are many steps in place to ensure fidelity of the teacher component which involves leading the classroom discussion. Multi-level analyses will be employed to determine whether the students in the intervention improve in their desire for intergroup friendships and experiences of classroom support relative to the students in the control condition. Novel data will be collected regarding intergroup attitudes held by children across a range of target groups and grade levels. The information from this project is expected to improve peer relationships due to the more positive classroom environment and an increase of social inclusion among peers. All children are expected to benefit by their participation in the program with a goal of improving academic engagement and healthy child development.

02

Conditions studied

  • Social Exclusion
  • Prejudice, Racial
  • Prejudice
  • Sexism
  • Peer Group

Keywords

  • intergroup attitudes
  • prejudice
  • bias
  • sexism
  • racism
  • exclusion
  • classroom intervention
  • moral reasoning
  • intergroup friendships
  • child development
03

In context

Social Isolation

236 studies on the registry are indexed under Social Isolation; 61 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 885 is above the median of 80 across 198 interventional studies indexed under Social Isolation.

Browse Social Isolation studies →

Lead sponsor

University of Maryland, College Park is the lead sponsor of 62 studies on the registry; 15 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
7 Years to 12 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

For Child Participants

Inclusion criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

  • children with parental consent in grades 3, 4, or 5 at participating schools
  • be between the ages of 7 and 12 years
  • children who need assistance sitting at their desk or reading the text can participate provided that an adult mentor is assigned to them to assist with the protocol

For Teacher Participants:

  • teachers of students in grades 3, 4, and 5 at participating schools and who provide assent
  • no age limits for teacher participation

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • school has identified the student as unable to participate due to disability status.
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Basic science
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
885 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Intervention: DIY Tool Classrooms

    Developing Inclusive Youth (DIY) classrooms complete a pretest and posttest survey in addition to completing 8 scenarios using the DIY online tool and a class discussion for each scenario.

    Behavioral: Developing Inclusive Youth (DIY)

  • No intervention
    Control: Business As Usual Classrooms

    The control group follows a Business-As-Usual plan (no "alternative" program is implemented for the control group.) They complete a pretest and posttest in the same weeks as the experimental group.

Interventions

  • BehavioralDeveloping Inclusive Youth (DIY)

    Developing Inclusive Youth (DIY) is a web-based curriculum tool that serves as the intervention program. The animated and narrated tool displays eight peer social exclusion scenarios in a range of familiar everyday social contexts (such as the playground and school). Children enter their responses while watching the scenarios. Responses include making decisions about inclusion and exclusion, evaluating the actions as okay or not okay, attributing feelings to includers, excluders, and excluded characters, and selecting reasons that best match their justification for their decisions and evaluations. The program includes teacher-guided group discussions following use of the tool in which teachers facilitate discussions about children's interpretations of the scenarios, evaluations, reflections regarding their own experiences of exclusion, and solutions. Participants will view and discuss 8 scenarios and engage in a discussion for each one over the course of 8 weeks.

    Also known as: Developing Inclusive Youth, DIY

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. School Belonging Scale

    The School Belonging Scale is an 8-item self-report measure consisting of a rating scale ranging from 1 (really not true) to 6 (really true). The average of all items creates a final score of perceived school belonging in which higher scores indicate higher levels of perceived school belonging. The original Psychological Sense of School Membership scale (PSSM) (Goodenow, 1999) measure has been found to have internal consistency reliability for both suburban (0.875) and urban (0.803) elementary school populations. We modified this measure for length. Pilot testing revealed that this new, shorter version was also found to have high internal reliability (0.714). The construct validity of the scale was also indicated through a significant relationship with teacher-ratings of student social standing (Goodenow, 1993).

    Time frame: one week following completion of the 8-week intervention

  2. Classroom Life Scale: Peer Personal Support Subscale Personal Support Subscale

    This is a five-item measure including items about whether other students in my class care about me and other students in my class like me for who I am. The measure has been found to produce reliability figures of .92 (Van Ryzin, Gravely, \& Roseth, 2009) and our modified version utilizing a 6-point response scale in place of the original 5-point scale found similar reliability scores (0.896). The rating scale ranged from 1 (really not true) to 6 (really true). The average of all items creates a score of perceived peer personal support in which higher scores indicate higher levels of perceived peer support. Performance on the Van Ryzin et al. (2009) scale has been demonstrated to have an independent positive effect on engagement in learning and has been validated by connections to academic engagement (Collie, Martin, Papworth, and Gins, 2016).

    Time frame: one week following completion of the 8-week intervention

  3. Classroom Life Scale: Teacher Personal Support Subscale

    The degree to which students perceive their teachers as personally supportive will be assessed using this 4-item measure. Items include statements such as my teacher cares about me and my teacher likes me for who I am. This measure was also modified from the original rating scale to a 6-point rating scale, which ranged from 1 (really not true) to 6 (really true). Van Ryzin et al. (2009) reported an internal consistency reliability of .91, and our pilot testing found a similar internal consistency reliability, 0.893. A composite score was computed using the mean of all items in the scale. Scores ranged from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 6. A higher score indicated higher teacher support, the more desirable outcome.

    Time frame: one week following completion of the 8-week intervention

  4. Trait Attributions for Gender, Race, & Ethnicity

    An adaptation of the Child Occupations and Traits (COAT) scale (Liben \& Bigler, 2002; 0.99) measures stereotypes re: gender and race intergroup categories. Participants respond to three types of items (e.g., how smart or not smart; how hardworking or lazy; or friendly or mean) and this measure was also modified to utilize a 6 point rating scale. There are two sub-categories, gender and race. The questions probe the degree to which children assign traits to specific groups. The version we utilized contained 12 items, 6 about race and 6 about gender and pilot testing revealed that this version had a high internal reliability for the full scale (0.919), as well as for the gender and the race subcomponents (0.859 and 0.849, respectively). Scores ranged from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 6. A higher score indicates more positive (better) trait attributions about peers.

    Time frame: one week following completion of the 8-week intervention

  5. High Status Occupation Expectations

    This set of items is adapted from Liben \& Bigler (2002). These items probe participant perceptions of the likelihood of group members obtaining high status occupations. Participants were asked "Which kid do you think will grow up to be a \[pilot/doctor/lawyer/scientist\]?" with one item for each profession. Participants selected which child of 8 possible choices they thought would become the profession. The 8 choices included a boy and a girl of each of the following racial groups: Asian, Black, Latine, White. The measure was made binary by whether participants selected an underrepresented minority (URM) (Black or Latine) in high status professions, or whether they selected a race group that is not underrepresented (White or Asian). The goal of the intervention was that more students in the treatment condition selected a URM student after the intervention program. Therefore in the fields below, the category Underrepresented Minority (URM) indicates the number of participants who select

    Time frame: one week following completion of the 8-week intervention

  6. Reported Contact Scale

    The diversity of friendships will be assessed using an adaptation of the Friendship Questionnaire (Bierman \& McCauley, 1987). The original measure has been widely utilized to assess the quality and quantity of children's peer interactions and has proven to be reliable (ranges from .72 to .82). The adaptation consisted of adding the intergroup categories of gender and race/ethnicity. This adapted version was also found to be internally reliable (0.659). Using gender, racial, and ethnic background, we will record how often they play with outgroup peers to determine the proportion of cross-gender, cross-race, and cross-ethnic playmate interactions. Scores on the scale ranged from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 6. Higher scores indicate a higher level of reported cross-group contact, which is the more desirable outcome.

    Time frame: one week following completion of the 8-week intervention

  7. Desire for Intergroup Contact

    This assessment consists of 5 separate items about how much the child wants to play with X, where X refers to pictures of girls, boys, and kids who are depicted as African American, European American, and Asian American). Response choices are provided on a 6 point rating scale ranging from 1 (really do not want to) to 6 (really want to). During pilot testing this measure was found to have a high internal consistency reliability (0.767). Using students' gender, ethnic, and racial background, we will record their desire to play with outgroup peers to determine the proportion of cross-gender, cross-race and cross-ethnic playmate preferences. Scores on the scale ranged from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 6. Higher scores indicate a higher desire for intergroup contact, the more desirable outcome.

    Time frame: change, one week following completion of the 8-week intervention

  8. Personal Experiences With Exclusion

    This assessments consists of 8 items about whether the child experiences exclusion in a school context. Response choices are provided on a 5 point Likert-type rating scale ranging from "Never" to "Always." This measure has been validated in previous research (Killen et al., 2022). Scores on the scale range from a minimum score of 1 and maximum score of 5. Higher scores indicate higher levels of personal experiences of exclusion, which is the less desirable outcome. Thus the goal of the intervention is to result in lower scores in the treatment group at posttest.

    Time frame: one week following completion of the 8-week intervention

  9. Evaluations of Exclusion in Intergroup and Same Group Contexts

    This assessment consists of 2 items repeated 4 times to reflect different race and gender combinations for a total of 8 items. This measure is adapted from Cooley et al., 2019. The items ask participants to evaluate exclusion in an intergroup and same group social context. Responses were on a 6-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (really not okay) to 6 (really okay). Scores on this scale range from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 6. A higher score on this scale indicates viewing exclusion as more acceptable and a lower score indicates viewing exclusion as less acceptable. The goal of the intervention is to promote lower scores, indicating participants are less accepting of exclusion.

    Time frame: one week following completion of the 8-week intervention

  10. Likelihood of Inclusion in Intergroup and Same Group Contexts

    This assessment consists of 5 items repeated 4 times to reflect different race and gender combinations for a total of 20 items. This measure is adapted from Cooley et al., 2019. The items ask participants to predict the likelihood of a child inviting someone to their birthday party, where the children they can invite may be of the same or a different race. Responses were on a 6-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (very unlikely) to 6 (very likely). Scores on this scale range from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 6. Higher scores indicate participants expect intergroup inclusion to be more likely, which is the more desirable outcome.

    Time frame: one week following completion of the 8-week intervention

  11. Stereotypes About Inclusivity

    This scale is adapted from Liben and Bigler (2002). The scale probes participant perceptions of the inclusivity levels of different groups. These scales were created consistent with the literature on gender stereotypes (Berenbaum, Martin, \& Ruble, 2015; Mulvey, Rizzo, \& Killen, 2016). A 5 point rating scale ranging from 1 (none) to 5 (all) indicates the proportion of children within a hypothetical target group whom participants believe fit into a categorization. Pilot testing revealed 0.800 for the 5-item measure of inclusivity levels of different groups. Scores on this scale range from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 5. Higher scores indicate more positive beliefs about peers' inclusive behavior, the more desirable outcome.

    Time frame: one week following completion of the 8-week intervention

  12. Stereotypes About Math & Science Competence

    This scale is adapted from Liben and Bigler (2002). The scale probes participant perceptions of the math and science abilities of different groups. This scale was created consistent with the literature on gender stereotypes (Berenbaum, Martin, \& Ruble, 2015; Mulvey, Rizzo, \& Killen, 2016). A 5 point rating scale ranging from 1 (none) to 5 (all) indicates the proportion of children within a hypothetical target group whom participants believe fit into a categorization. Pilot testing revealed 0.796 for the 5-item measure of math and science abilities of different groups. Scores ranged from a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 5. Higher scores indicate more positive beliefs about peers' math and science abilities, which is the more desirable outcome.

    Time frame: one week following completion of the 8-week intervention

07

Results

Posted Sep 2, 2025

Participant flow

We recruited elementary schools in the local public school district by sending an email invitation to every school in the district. Once the schools elected to participate, families received hard copy or electronic consent forms in English, Spanish, and/or Mandarin. Students who returned consent forms received an eraser. Participating schools received $1500 and teachers with students in the intervention group received $150 to compensate for their time administering the program.

Participant flow — Overall Study
MilestoneIntervention: DIY Tool ClassroomsControl: Business As Usual Classrooms
Started522363
Completed522363
Not completed00

Outcome measures

PrimarySchool Belonging Scale

The School Belonging Scale is an 8-item self-report measure consisting of a rating scale ranging from 1 (really not true) to 6 (really true). The average of all items creates a final score of perceived school belonging in which higher scores indicate higher levels of perceived school belonging. The original Psychological Sense of School Membership scale (PSSM) (Goodenow, 1999) measure has been found to have internal consistency reliability for both suburban (0.875) and urban (0.803) elementary school populations. We modified this measure for length. Pilot testing revealed that this new, shorter version was also found to have high internal reliability (0.714). The construct validity of the scale was also indicated through a significant relationship with teacher-ratings of student social standing (Goodenow, 1993).

Time frame:
one week following completion of the 8-week intervention
Reported as:
Mean · score on a scale
School Belonging Scale
score on a scaleIntervention: DIY Tool ClassroomsControl: Business As Usual Classrooms
School Belonging Scale4.72 ± .074.72 ± .09
PrimaryClassroom Life Scale: Peer Personal Support Subscale Personal Support Subscale

This is a five-item measure including items about whether other students in my class care about me and other students in my class like me for who I am. The measure has been found to produce reliability figures of .92 (Van Ryzin, Gravely, \& Roseth, 2009) and our modified version utilizing a 6-point response scale in place of the original 5-point scale found similar reliability scores (0.896). The rating scale ranged from 1 (really not true) to 6 (really true). The average of all items creates a score of perceived peer personal support in which higher scores indicate higher levels of perceived peer support. Performance on the Van Ryzin et al. (2009) scale has been demonstrated to have an independent positive effect on engagement in learning and has been validated by connections to academic engagement (Collie, Martin, Papworth, and Gins, 2016).

Time frame:
one week following completion of the 8-week intervention
Reported as:
Mean · score on a scale
Classroom Life Scale: Peer Personal Support Subscale Personal Support Subscale
score on a scaleIntervention: DIY Tool ClassroomsControl: Business As Usual Classrooms
Classroom Life Scale: Peer Personal Support Subscale Personal Support Subscale4.35 ± .084.40 ± .11
PrimaryClassroom Life Scale: Teacher Personal Support Subscale

The degree to which students perceive their teachers as personally supportive will be assessed using this 4-item measure. Items include statements such as my teacher cares about me and my teacher likes me for who I am. This measure was also modified from the original rating scale to a 6-point rating scale, which ranged from 1 (really not true) to 6 (really true). Van Ryzin et al. (2009) reported an internal consistency reliability of .91, and our pilot testing found a similar internal consistency reliability, 0.893. A composite score was computed using the mean of all items in the scale. Scores ranged from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 6. A higher score indicated higher teacher support, the more desirable outcome.

Time frame:
one week following completion of the 8-week intervention
Reported as:
Mean · score on a scale
Classroom Life Scale: Teacher Personal Support Subscale
score on a scaleIntervention: DIY Tool ClassroomsControl: Business As Usual Classrooms
Classroom Life Scale: Teacher Personal Support Subscale5.12 ± .065.03 ± .09
PrimaryTrait Attributions for Gender, Race, & Ethnicity

An adaptation of the Child Occupations and Traits (COAT) scale (Liben \& Bigler, 2002; 0.99) measures stereotypes re: gender and race intergroup categories. Participants respond to three types of items (e.g., how smart or not smart; how hardworking or lazy; or friendly or mean) and this measure was also modified to utilize a 6 point rating scale. There are two sub-categories, gender and race. The questions probe the degree to which children assign traits to specific groups. The version we utilized contained 12 items, 6 about race and 6 about gender and pilot testing revealed that this version had a high internal reliability for the full scale (0.919), as well as for the gender and the race subcomponents (0.859 and 0.849, respectively). Scores ranged from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 6. A higher score indicates more positive (better) trait attributions about peers.

Time frame:
one week following completion of the 8-week intervention
Reported as:
Mean · score on a scale
Trait Attributions for Gender, Race, & Ethnicity
score on a scaleIntervention: DIY Tool ClassroomsControl: Business As Usual Classrooms
Trait Attributions for Gender, Race, & Ethnicity4.83 (4.45 to 5.36)4.82 (4.39 to 5.25)
PrimaryHigh Status Occupation Expectations

This set of items is adapted from Liben \& Bigler (2002). These items probe participant perceptions of the likelihood of group members obtaining high status occupations. Participants were asked "Which kid do you think will grow up to be a \[pilot/doctor/lawyer/scientist\]?" with one item for each profession. Participants selected which child of 8 possible choices they thought would become the profession. The 8 choices included a boy and a girl of each of the following racial groups: Asian, Black, Latine, White. The measure was made binary by whether participants selected an underrepresented minority (URM) (Black or Latine) in high status professions, or whether they selected a race group that is not underrepresented (White or Asian). The goal of the intervention was that more students in the treatment condition selected a URM student after the intervention program. Therefore in the fields below, the category Underrepresented Minority (URM) indicates the number of participants who select

Time frame:
one week following completion of the 8-week intervention
Reported as:
Count of participants · Participants
High Status Occupation Expectations
ParticipantsIntervention: DIY Tool ClassroomsControl: Business As Usual Classrooms
Doctor — Underrepresented Minority (URM)204131
Doctor — Highly represented group (non-URM)295211
Lawyer — Underrepresented Minority (URM)269185
Lawyer — Highly represented group (non-URM)230157
Pilot — Underrepresented Minority (URM)215143
Pilot — Highly represented group (non-URM)284199
Scientist — Underrepresented Minority (URM)185138
Scientist — Highly represented group (non-URM)314204
PrimaryReported Contact Scale

The diversity of friendships will be assessed using an adaptation of the Friendship Questionnaire (Bierman \& McCauley, 1987). The original measure has been widely utilized to assess the quality and quantity of children's peer interactions and has proven to be reliable (ranges from .72 to .82). The adaptation consisted of adding the intergroup categories of gender and race/ethnicity. This adapted version was also found to be internally reliable (0.659). Using gender, racial, and ethnic background, we will record how often they play with outgroup peers to determine the proportion of cross-gender, cross-race, and cross-ethnic playmate interactions. Scores on the scale ranged from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 6. Higher scores indicate a higher level of reported cross-group contact, which is the more desirable outcome.

Time frame:
one week following completion of the 8-week intervention
Reported as:
Mean · score on a scale
Reported Contact Scale
score on a scaleIntervention: DIY Tool ClassroomsControl: Business As Usual Classrooms
Reported Contact Scale3.34 (3.00 to 3.67)3.31 (3.00 to 3.67)
PrimaryDesire for Intergroup Contact

This assessment consists of 5 separate items about how much the child wants to play with X, where X refers to pictures of girls, boys, and kids who are depicted as African American, European American, and Asian American). Response choices are provided on a 6 point rating scale ranging from 1 (really do not want to) to 6 (really want to). During pilot testing this measure was found to have a high internal consistency reliability (0.767). Using students' gender, ethnic, and racial background, we will record their desire to play with outgroup peers to determine the proportion of cross-gender, cross-race and cross-ethnic playmate preferences. Scores on the scale ranged from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 6. Higher scores indicate a higher desire for intergroup contact, the more desirable outcome.

Time frame:
change, one week following completion of the 8-week intervention
Reported as:
Mean · score on a scale
Desire for Intergroup Contact
score on a scaleIntervention: DIY Tool ClassroomsControl: Business As Usual Classrooms
Desire for Intergroup Contact3.99 (3.33 to 4.67)3.92 (3.17 to 4.58)
PrimaryPersonal Experiences With Exclusion

This assessments consists of 8 items about whether the child experiences exclusion in a school context. Response choices are provided on a 5 point Likert-type rating scale ranging from "Never" to "Always." This measure has been validated in previous research (Killen et al., 2022). Scores on the scale range from a minimum score of 1 and maximum score of 5. Higher scores indicate higher levels of personal experiences of exclusion, which is the less desirable outcome. Thus the goal of the intervention is to result in lower scores in the treatment group at posttest.

Time frame:
one week following completion of the 8-week intervention
Reported as:
Mean · score on a scale
Personal Experiences With Exclusion
score on a scaleIntervention: DIY Tool ClassroomsControl: Business As Usual Classrooms
Personal Experiences With Exclusion2.02 ± .061.96 ± .08
PrimaryEvaluations of Exclusion in Intergroup and Same Group Contexts

This assessment consists of 2 items repeated 4 times to reflect different race and gender combinations for a total of 8 items. This measure is adapted from Cooley et al., 2019. The items ask participants to evaluate exclusion in an intergroup and same group social context. Responses were on a 6-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (really not okay) to 6 (really okay). Scores on this scale range from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 6. A higher score on this scale indicates viewing exclusion as more acceptable and a lower score indicates viewing exclusion as less acceptable. The goal of the intervention is to promote lower scores, indicating participants are less accepting of exclusion.

Time frame:
one week following completion of the 8-week intervention
Reported as:
Mean · score on a scale
Evaluations of Exclusion in Intergroup and Same Group Contexts
score on a scaleIntervention: DIY Tool ClassroomsControl: Business As Usual Classrooms
Evaluations of Exclusion in Intergroup and Same Group Contexts3.05 ± .072.96 ± .09
PrimaryLikelihood of Inclusion in Intergroup and Same Group Contexts

This assessment consists of 5 items repeated 4 times to reflect different race and gender combinations for a total of 20 items. This measure is adapted from Cooley et al., 2019. The items ask participants to predict the likelihood of a child inviting someone to their birthday party, where the children they can invite may be of the same or a different race. Responses were on a 6-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (very unlikely) to 6 (very likely). Scores on this scale range from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 6. Higher scores indicate participants expect intergroup inclusion to be more likely, which is the more desirable outcome.

Time frame:
one week following completion of the 8-week intervention
Reported as:
Mean · score on a scale
Likelihood of Inclusion in Intergroup and Same Group Contexts
score on a scaleIntervention: DIY Tool ClassroomsControl: Business As Usual Classrooms
Likelihood of Inclusion in Intergroup and Same Group Contexts4.53 ± .054.54 ± .06
PrimaryStereotypes About Inclusivity

This scale is adapted from Liben and Bigler (2002). The scale probes participant perceptions of the inclusivity levels of different groups. These scales were created consistent with the literature on gender stereotypes (Berenbaum, Martin, \& Ruble, 2015; Mulvey, Rizzo, \& Killen, 2016). A 5 point rating scale ranging from 1 (none) to 5 (all) indicates the proportion of children within a hypothetical target group whom participants believe fit into a categorization. Pilot testing revealed 0.800 for the 5-item measure of inclusivity levels of different groups. Scores on this scale range from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 5. Higher scores indicate more positive beliefs about peers' inclusive behavior, the more desirable outcome.

Time frame:
one week following completion of the 8-week intervention
Reported as:
Mean · score on a scale
Stereotypes About Inclusivity
score on a scaleIntervention: DIY Tool ClassroomsControl: Business As Usual Classrooms
Stereotypes About Inclusivity3.70 (3.17 to 4.08)3.75 (3.17 to 4.17)
PrimaryStereotypes About Math & Science Competence

This scale is adapted from Liben and Bigler (2002). The scale probes participant perceptions of the math and science abilities of different groups. This scale was created consistent with the literature on gender stereotypes (Berenbaum, Martin, \& Ruble, 2015; Mulvey, Rizzo, \& Killen, 2016). A 5 point rating scale ranging from 1 (none) to 5 (all) indicates the proportion of children within a hypothetical target group whom participants believe fit into a categorization. Pilot testing revealed 0.796 for the 5-item measure of math and science abilities of different groups. Scores ranged from a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 5. Higher scores indicate more positive beliefs about peers' math and science abilities, which is the more desirable outcome.

Time frame:
one week following completion of the 8-week intervention
Reported as:
Mean · score on a scale
Stereotypes About Math & Science Competence
score on a scaleIntervention: DIY Tool ClassroomsControl: Business As Usual Classrooms
Stereotypes About Math & Science Competence4.89 (4.58 to 5.39)4.89 (4.50 to 5.25)

Adverse events

Collected over 10 weeks. Non-serious events are listed at a 0% frequency threshold.

Adverse event summary by group
GroupDeathsSeriousOther
Intervention: DIY Tool Classrooms0/522 (0%)0/522 (0%)0/522 (0%)
Control: Business As Usual Classrooms0/363 (0%)0/363 (0%)0/363 (0%)

Baseline characteristics

Age, Categorical
Age, Categorical(Participants)Intervention: DIY Tool ClassroomsControl: Business As Usual ClassroomsTotal
<=18 years522363885
Between 18 and 65 years000
>=65 years000
Age, Continuous
Age, Continuous(years)Intervention: DIY Tool ClassroomsControl: Business As Usual ClassroomsTotal
Mean9.67 ± .959.72 ± 1.019.69 ± .98
Sex: Female, Male
Sex: Female, Male(Participants)Intervention: DIY Tool ClassroomsControl: Business As Usual ClassroomsTotal
Female251180431
Male271183454
Race/Ethnicity, Customized
Race/Ethnicity, Customized(Participants)Intervention: DIY Tool ClassroomsControl: Business As Usual ClassroomsTotal
Asian7459133
Black6242104
Latine7445119
Multiracial6859127
White191122313
Other/Unknown533689
Region of Enrollment
Region of Enrollment(participants)Intervention: DIY Tool ClassroomsControl: Business As Usual ClassroomsTotal
United States522363885
08

Study locations

1 site
  • University of Maryland
    College Park, Maryland 20742, United States
09

References and documents

Publications

  • Goodenow, C. (1993). The psychological sense of school membership among adolescents: Scale development and educational correlates. Psychology in the Schools, 30, 79-90. DOI:10.1002/1520-6807.
  • Van Ryzin MJ, Gravely AA, Roseth CJ. Autonomy, belongingness, and engagement in school as contributors to adolescent psychological well-being. J Youth Adolesc. 2009 Jan;38(1):1-12. doi: 10.1007/s10964-007-9257-4. Epub 2007 Nov 30. PubMed 19636787 ↗
  • Collie, R. J., Martin, A. J., Papworth, B. & Gins, P., (2016). Students' interpersonal relationships, personal best (PB) goals, and academic engagement, Learning and Individual Differences, 45, 65-76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2015.12.002
  • Liben LS, Bigler RS. The developmental course of gender differentiation: conceptualizing, measuring, and evaluating constructs and pathways. Monogr Soc Res Child Dev. 2002;67(2):i-viii, 1-147; discussion 148-83. PubMed 12465575 ↗
  • Mulvey KL, Rizzo MT, Killen M. Challenging gender stereotypes: Theory of mind and peer group dynamics. Dev Sci. 2016 Nov;19(6):999-1010. doi: 10.1111/desc.12345. Epub 2015 Sep 22. PubMed 26395753 ↗
  • Bierman, K. L., & McCauley, E. (1987). Children's descriptions of their peer interactions: Useful information for clinical child assessment. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 16(1), 9-18. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15374424jccp1601_2
  • Grutter J, Gasser L, Zuffiano A, Meyer B. Promoting Inclusion Via Cross-Group Friendship: The Mediating Role of Change in Trust and Sympathy. Child Dev. 2018 Jul;89(4):e414-e430. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12883. Epub 2017 Jun 19. PubMed 28626994 ↗
  • Killen M, Burkholder AR, D'Esterre AP, Sims RN, Glidden J, Yee KM, Luken Raz KV, Elenbaas L, Rizzo MT, Woodward B, Samuelson A, Sweet TM, Stapleton LM. Testing the effectiveness of the Developing Inclusive Youth program: A multisite randomized control trial. Child Dev. 2022 May;93(3):732-750. doi: 10.1111/cdev.13785. Epub 2022 May 25. PubMed 35612354 ↗

Study documents

PDFs hosted by the registry, ClinicalTrials.gov.

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

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Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Sep 2, 2025, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05619523
Lead sponsor
University of Maryland, College Park
Responsible party
Melanie Killen (Professor of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, College Park) — Principal investigator
First posted
Nov 17, 2022
Start date
Sep 27, 2022
Primary completion
Dec 23, 2023
Completion
Jan 31, 2024
Results posted
Sep 2, 2025
Last update
Sep 2, 2025

Study contacts

Wendy Montgomery
study chair · University of Maryland, College Park

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Aug 2025. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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