Absence of conflict of interest.
Citation
Highlights
- The study's objective was to examine the impact of the Youth Transition Demonstration (YTD) project on public benefits receipt, employment, and earnings outcomes. This profile focuses on the study conducted in Bronx County, New York. The authors investigated similar research questions for other sites, the profiles of which can be found here:
- The study was a randomized controlled trial that assigned eligible youth to the treatment or control group. The primary data sources were a baseline survey and administrative data sets from governmental agencies. The author used a series of statistical tests to compare differences in outcomes between treatment and control group members.
- The study found that YTD program participants had significantly higher rates of SSI program participation, received larger average SSA program payments, and had higher employment rates two years after randomization than control participants.
- This study receives a high evidence rating. This means we are confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the Youth Transition Demonstration (YTD) project, and not to other factors.
Intervention Examined
The Youth Transition Demonstration
Features of the Intervention
The Youth Transition Demonstration (YTD) aimed to help youth with disabilities manage their transitions to adulthood and identify interventions to improve educational and vocational outcomes for youths receiving or potentially qualifying for Social Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) benefits. The Social Security Administration (SSA) implemented the YTD at several sites in the United States.
The City University of New York (CUNY) operated one YTD program. The program served youth between the ages of 16 and 19, who were receiving SSI or DI benefit payments, and lived in Bronx County, New York. The CUNY YTD program provided youth with direct services, summer employment opportunities, person-centered plans for goal achievement, recreational and social activities focused on workshops, self-determination, career planning, and benefits planning. This project also provided services for youths' family members such as education on youth self-determination needs and access to parent advocates who provided regular check-ins and offered connections and resources according to the youth's needs.
Features of the Study
The study was a randomized controlled trial. Between July 2006 and November 2008, 884 youth were recruited for the study. Of the eligible youth, 491 were randomly assigned to the treatment group and 393 were randomly assigned to the control group. The treatment group received the full CUNY YTD program for the duration of one school year with limited follow-up services and an optional seven weeks of summer employment available after the intervention period. Additionally, treatment group youth were eligible for certain waivers allowing them to keep more of their earnings without affecting their SSI payments. Youth in the control group were subject to standard SSA earnings rules and received standard employment services that would normally be available to SSI or DI recipients. Study participants were predominantly male (67%), age 16 (43%) or 17 (32%), with a primary disability of other mental disorder (49%). The primary data sources were a baseline survey on the background characteristics of youth, SSA Master Earnings File for W-2 derived earnings, Supplemental Security Record and Master Beneficiary Record for program participation histories for SSI and DI recipients, and the Numerical Identification System file for dates of death. The author used a series of statistical tests to compare differences in outcomes between treatment and control group members.
Findings
Public Benefits Receipt
- The study found that a significantly higher proportion of youth in the treatment group than the control group participated in the SSI program or either the SSI or DI program 24 months after random assignment.
- The study found that neither treatment nor control group youth earnings exceeded the substantial gainful activity (SGA) limit that would result in a reduction of benefit receipt.
- The study found that youth in the treatment group averaged significantly larger SSA program payments 24 months after random assignment than the control group.
Employment
- The study found that a significantly higher proportion of youth in the treatment group than the control group were employed/received any earnings both one year and two years after random assignment.
Earnings and Wages
- When comparing annual earnings among all participants, the study did not find any significant differences in the dollar amount earned by youth in the treatment group when compared to the control group.
- When comparing annual earnings only among participants with earnings, the study found that youth in the treatment group earned significantly less than youth in the control group one year after random assignment but there were no significant differences in earnings two years after random assignment.
Considerations for Interpreting the Findings
There are a few things to consider when interpreting the results from the current study. First, the author estimated many related impacts on earnings and public benefit receipt outcomes. Performing multiple statistical tests on related outcomes makes it more likely that some impacts will be found statistically significant purely by chance and not because they reflect program effectiveness. The author did not perform statistical adjustments to account for the multiple tests, so the number of statistically significant findings in these domains is likely to be overstated. Additionally, the study reports a less stringent statistical significance level for some findings, considering p-values of less than 0.10 to be significant, though it is standard practice to consider statistical significance if the p-value is less than 0.05. Only results that demonstrate a p-value of less than 0.05 are considered statistically significant in this profile.
Causal Evidence Rating
The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is high, because it was based on a well implemented randomized controlled trial. This means we are confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the Youth Transition Demonstration project, and not to other factors.