NCT07227220

Summer Youth Employment Programs for Health Promotion

Leveraging Summer Youth Employment Programs to Prevent Obesity in Adolescents

• Status: Completed
• Phase: EARLY_Phase 1
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 15 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Houston · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 14 Years – 17 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The purpose of this proof-of-concept study is to assess the initial signal of effectiveness of summer youth employment programs (SYEP) on understudied obesity-related outcomes in adolescents. This small-scale study is essential to identify early success and refine the intervention before scaling to a larger, more resource-intensive randomized trial. Specifically, this one-group pre-posttest study will: Aim 1 (Primary): Evaluate if a 6-week SYEP provides an initial signal for effectiveness (maintenance or decrease in zBMI) over the summer. Hypothesis 1: Adolescents who participated in a SYEP will maintain or decrease their BMI over the summer. Aim 2 (Secondary): Evaluate changes in obesogenic behaviors (physical activity, sleep, sedentary, and diet) over the summer. Hypothesis 2: Adolescents who participated in a SYEP will increase physical activity, reduce sedentary behavior, and improve sleep and diet quality over the summer. Aim 3 (Secondary): Evaluate the feasibility of SYEP for obesity prevention intervention to inform intervention scalability. Hypothesis 3: The SYEP program will be a feasible and acceptable intervention strategy for the prevention of obesity in adolescents over the summer.

Detailed description

Preliminary evidence suggests that summer employment can be an age-appropriate, structured intervention to prevent unhealthy changes in obesogenic behaviors among adolescents. While these findings are promising, none of the existing studies have measured changes in BMI over the summer or conducted comprehensive assessments of obesogenic behaviors, including diet, sedentary behavior, sleep, and physical activity. To address these gaps, this study proposes a small proof-of-concept study to assess the initial signal of effectiveness on understudied obesity-related outcomes in adolescents. SYEPs are well-established, continuously operating initiatives over 60 years with proven benefits in academics, workforce development, and crime prevention, and may also act as obesity prevention strategies. Rather than creating new interventions, investing in and expanding access to SYEPs-programs with high demand yet limited capacity (with only \~28% of applicants matched with jobs each summer, leaving the majority on waitlists)-can offer a practical solution for youth obesity prevention.

Conditions

• Obesity, Childhood
• Behavior, Health
• Healthy Lifestyle

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Summer Youth Employment Program	The intervention aims to employ adolescents in paid positions for six weeks during the summer, providing them with a structured, routine-based, and adult-supervised environment similar to that of the school year.

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-03-31
• Primary completion: 2025-07-07
• Completion: 2025-07-29
• First posted: 2025-11-12
• Last updated: 2025-11-12

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States