Mental Health Foundation: Becoming a Man (BAM)
School-based social skills training for 12-14 year old boys, delivered via weekly group sessions
Evaluation type
Feasibility & Pilot study
Related Project
Mental Health FoundationOrganisation name
Mental Health FoundationFunding round
Launch grant roundFunding
£1,643,164Region
LondonActivity Type
Social skills training
Setting
School and college
Evaluators
Dartington Service Design Lab, University of Exeter, University of Plymouth
Completed
July 2024What does this project involve?
Becoming a Man (BAM) aims to support 12 to 16 year old boys to improve their social and emotional skills, self-awareness, relationships with peers and adults, and engagement in school.
The central component of BAM is the BAM Circle, a weekly group session, delivered in school, to 8-12 young people. Delivered over two years by a BAM counsellor, Circles include a range of activities (such as role plays, group missions, and lectures) and these activities promote BAM’s core values, including integrity, accountability and positive anger expression. Alongside BAM Circles, the intervention also provides group activities outside of school, informal check-ins with young people, and individualised 1:1 support where required. In this project, BAM was targeted at 12 to 14 year olds, in three South London secondary schools.
Why did YEF fund this project?
BAM has a Level 4 evidence rating on the Early Intervention Foundation Guidebook, meaning that it has “evidence of a long-term positive impact on child outcomes through multiple rigorous evaluations”. Two randomised controlled trials have shown positive impacts on numbers of arrests (for violent/all crime) and school performance for students with an average age of 15 years living in racially segregated and deprived communities in Chicago. However, evidence for the effectiveness of BAM comes exclusively from the US. YEF, therefore, funded two evaluation’s of BAM: a feasibility study, and a separate pilot study.
Both evaluations aimed to ascertain whether BAM was successfully implemented, whether successful implementation may have led to improved social and emotional, behavioural, and academic outcomes, and whether there were any unintended consequences. To explore these questions, the feasibility evaluation analysed routinely collected programme delivery data (including data on participation, participant demographics, and assessment of students), alongside conducting interviews and focus groups. 52 interviews were carried out by the evaluation team, including 13 scholar interviews, 15 with parents/carers, four with school staff, 16 with BAM counsellors, and four with Mental Health Foundation professionals. 95 children participated in the programme during the feasibility study; 56% of them identified as ‘Black/Black British’, 18% as ‘Mixed Ethnicity’, 10% as ‘White/White British’, and 6% as ‘Other’. No data on ethnicity was provided for 7% of children. The feasibility study ran from March 2020 to November 2022.
In the pilot study, the evaluation also collected quantitative data including routinely collected programme data on programme participation, participant socio-demographics and the Holistic Student Assessment and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Qualitative data collected during the pilot study included interviews (with six counsellors, 14 parents/carers, 11 children, three school staff, a staff member from Youth Guidance (who delivered BAM in Chicago) and a staff member at the Mental Health Foundation) and focus groups with counsellors. 97 children participated in the pilot; 66% identified as ‘Black/Black British’, 19% as ‘Mixed Ethnicity’, 10% as ‘White/White British’, and 6% as ‘Other’. The pilot phase started in September 2021 and finished in December 2023.
Key conclusions
| Some elements of BAM were implemented with success, while others proved more challenging. |
| Counsellors perceived recruitment of children to be effective and six of the nine BAM groups reached the target size (8 to 12). However, there were some challenges in effectively recruiting children from all three tiers of need. |
| Children responded well to the curriculum, finding it fun, engaging, relevant and varied. However, it did prove challenging to progress through each of the 30 lessons. Most scholars and carers who were interviewed perceived counsellors to be empathetic, supportive and trustworthy. Counsellors’ previous skills and experience, in addition to BAM training and coaching, supported them to deliver sessions. However, peer supervision and project management support appeared to have less impact. |
| Interviews with counsellors, scholars, parents/carers, and school staff suggest that BAM contributed to children’s social and emotional development and responsible decision making. However, the pilot was not designed to attribute impact on these skills to BAM based on a comparison with a counterfactual group. |
| Negative labelling of BAM groups within schools did not appear to occur. Some school staff did note that missing school lessons may be a risk for their academic performance. |
What will YEF do next?
YEF is currently considering whether to proceed with further evaluation of BAM.