The Use of Mentoring to Promote Well-being for Female SMART Members

• Sponsor: University of Washington (Other)
• Overall Status: Enrolling by invitation
• CT.gov ID: NCT04247880
• Collaborator: The Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR) (Other), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH/CDC) (U.S. Fed)
• Enrollment: 230
• Locations: 19
• Arms: 2
• Anticipated Duration (Months): 46
• Patients Per Site: 12.1
• Patients Per Site Per Month: 0.3

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

Women are highly underrepresented in the construction skilled trades. In addition to facing the industry's well-known physical risks, women are subjected to discrimination, harassment, and skills under-utilization. As a result, tradeswomen have increased risk for injury, stress-related health effects, and high attrition rates from apprenticeship programs, thus perpetuating their minority status. Mentoring is a well-established technique for learning technical and personal navigation skills in new or challenging social environments. The investigators propose development and dissemination of a mentorship program through local unions of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART), and evaluating its success in reducing women's injury and work stress, while improving retention.

Condition or Disease	Intervention/Treatment	Phase
Harassment, Non-Sexual; Harassment, Sexual; Bullying, Workplace; Mental Stress; Work-Related Condition; Work-related Injury; Work Related Stress	Behavioral: Mentoring program	N/A

Detailed Description

Journey-level workers will be trained on effective mentoring techniques, and matched to approximately 100 women apprentices within participating local unions. Mentees will be followed for two years within the mentorship program, with another 100 women apprentices in locals not receiving the mentorship training similarly followed as controls. The impact of participation in mentoring programs will be measured through apprentices' experience of stress, coping mechanisms, safety climate, and retention in the apprenticeship programs.

Specifically, the investigators propose to:

Aim 1: Develop a mentorship training program for journey-level sheet metal workers to assist women apprentices in navigating the challenges faced by women in trades

Aim 2: Disseminate the training and assist locals in developing effective mentorship programs

Aim 3: Evaluate the effectiveness of the mentoring programs specified in Aims 1 and 2

Aim 4: Disseminate the best practices for supporting women apprentices in the skilled trades.

Study Design

• Study Type: Interventional
• Anticipated Enrollment: 230 participants
• Allocation: Randomized
• Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)
• Primary Purpose: Other
• Official Title: Advancing Women in the Sheet Metal Workers' Trade: A Coordinated Mentoring Program to Promote Safety, Health, and Well-being
• Actual Study Start Date: Mar 1, 2021
• Anticipated Primary Completion Date: Jul 1, 2024
• Anticipated Study Completion Date: Dec 31, 2024

Arms and Interventions

Arm	Intervention/Treatment
Experimental: Mentees This arm consists of apprentice-level, female-identifying construction workers who will receive active mentorship (the intervention) for two years from trained journey-level mentors.	Behavioral: Mentoring program; Apprentice-level female construction workers will be assigned to a mentor who has gone through a rigorous mentorship training. Participants will be asked to meet with a mentor at least 4 times/year in person to discuss the challenges of being a female in construction, learn coping mechanisms, and otherwise discuss the unique challenges of the job environment.
No Intervention: Control Apprentices This arm consists of apprentice-level, female-identifying construction workers who will not receive mentorship.

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

1. Stress [4 year period]

   Measures of feelings of stress among the female workers from validated questionnaire

2. Job satisfaction [4 year period]

   Measures of job satisfaction from validated questionnaire

3. Social support [4 year period]

   Measures of social support both in and out of work from validated questionnaire

4. Work-related risks [4 year period]

   Knowledge, awareness, and coping mechanisms for work-related risks from validated questionnaire

Secondary Outcome Measures

1. Retention in the trades [4 year period]

   Measure of the number of women who remain in the trades

Eligibility Criteria

Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 21 Years to 65 Years
• Sexes Eligible for Study: Female
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Inclusion Criteria:

• All mentors must be journey-level sheet metal workers that are members of the SMART (International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers) Union. All mentees and control apprentices must be apprentice-level sheet metal workers that are members of the SMART Union, and identify as woman.

Exclusion Criteria:

• No exclusions will be made on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, age, disability or religion for mentors, mentees, and control apprentices. No exclusions will be made on the basis of gender for mentors. For mentees and control apprentices, those that do not identify as a woman will be excluded.

Contacts and Locations

Locations

	Site	City	State	Country	Postal Code
1	Phoenix Area Local 359	Phoenix	Arizona	United States	85034
2	Sheet Metal Workers Local 105	Glendora	California	United States	91740
3	Sheet Metal Workers Local 104	San Jose	California	United States	95131
4	Sheet Metal Workers Local 9	Denver	Colorado	United States	80211
5	Sheet Metal Workers Local 85	Atlanta	Georgia	United States	30315
6	Hawaii Sheet Metal Workers Local 293	Honolulu	Hawaii	United States	96817
7	Sheet Metal Workers Local 73	Hillside	Illinois	United States	60162
8	Sheet Metal Workers Local 20	Indianapolis	Indiana	United States	46205
9	Sheet Metal Workers Local 17	Dorchester	Massachusetts	United States	02124
10	Sheet Metal Workers Local 63	Springfield	Massachusetts	United States	01104
11	Sheet Metal Workers Local 10	Maplewood	Minnesota	United States	55109
12	Sheet Metal Workers Local 36	Saint Louis	Missouri	United States	63103
13	Sheet Metal Workers Local 49	Albuquerque	New Mexico	United States	87106
14	Sheet Metal Workers Local 28	New York	New York	United States	10013
15	Columbus Sheet Metal Workers Apprenticeship	Columbus	Ohio	United States	43219
16	Sheet Metal Workers Local 16	Portland	Oregon	United States	97230
17	Sheet Metal Workers Local 19	Philadelphia	Pennsylvania	United States	19147
18	Sheet Metal Workers Local 67	San Antonio	Texas	United States	78216
19	Sheet Metal Workers Local Union 66	Everett	Washington	United States	98204

Sponsors and Collaborators

• University of Washington
• The Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR)
• National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH/CDC)

Investigators

• Principal Investigator: Marissa G Baker, PhD, University of Washington
• Study Director: Lily M Monsey, BA, University of Washington

Study Documents (Full-Text)

None provided.

More Information

Publications

None provided.

• Responsible Party: Marissa Baker, Assistant Professor, University of Washington
• ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04247880
• Other Study ID Numbers: STUDY00009270; U60OH009762-11
• First Posted: Jan 30, 2020
• Last Update Posted: May 23, 2022
• Last Verified: May 1, 2022

• Individual Participant Data (IPD) Sharing Statement: No
• Plan to Share IPD: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Drug Product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Device Product: No
• Additional relevant MeSH terms: Occupational Stress; Stress, Psychological; Bullying

Study Results

No Results Posted as of May 23, 2022