Esther Mertens

46 | Chapter 3 tracks. They can, however, be a challenging group to involve in school-based interventions. Generally, they show less autonomy, intrinsic motivation for school and (verbal) learning, and have lower cognitive capacities than students following the other two tracks (Timmermans, Naaijer, Keuning, & Zijsling, 2017). It seems pivotal for interventions that specifically target prevocational students to use an approach that fits with the learning processes of these students. Research recommends to create a learning environment in which short moments of instructions or reflections are alternated with practicing the new skills in a relevant context. Such an environment is suggested to foster students’ understanding and use of the learned content (De Bruijn et al., 2005). Hence, an intervention approach that combines a psychological approach (i.e., instruction, reflection) with a physical approach (i.e., practice of skills) seems a promising approach for prevocational students. A universal school-based intervention that uniquely combines a psychological approach with a physical approach is Rock and Water (R&W; Ykema, 2002; 2018). R&W is based on the theory of the ‘R&W house’ consisting of five modules. The first module addresses students’ need to feel safe in order to change their behavior and develop themselves, targeting behaviors such as externalizing behavior, aggression, and bullying. The second module states that students need to learn to deal with difficult situations without losing self-control, targeting behaviors such as resilience, sexual autonomy, internalizing behavior, and victimization. The third module focusses on communication with others, targeting behaviors such as positive social interactions between classmates. The last two modules stress the importance of developing own preferences and choices to increase self-insight, targeting more general feelings of psychological wellbeing. The R&W house is built on a foundation of three pillars (i.e., self-control, self-reflection, and self-esteem). Closely related to these three pillars is emotional self-regulation. According to the theory of R&W, students’ self-control, self- reflection, self-esteem, and emotional self-regulation increase during the intervention which enables students to develop themselves within each of the five modules. Even though R&W is implemented in many countries (e.g., Australia, China, Singapore, France, the Netherlands), only little is known about the effectiveness of the intervention. Several small-scaled studies found that after completing R&Wparticipants felt more resilient, experienced a more positive identity, and used more active than passive coping styles (Ykema, Harman, & Imms, 2006). Amore recent study, examining the effectiveness of R&W on sexual aggression among prevocational boys in the 9 th and 10 th Grade, showed that self-reported coercive strategies and verbal manipulation decreased and self-regulation and efficacy increased after completing R&W (De Graaf, De Haas, Zaagsma, & Wijsen, 2015). Notwithstanding these promising results, a large scale study focusing on broader outcome measures and including girls as well as boys is needed to assess the effectiveness of R&W, and in specific its effectiveness for prevocational students. The first aim of the present study was therefore to examine whether R&W is effective in enhancing competencies and preventing problems in both the intrapersonal and interpersonal domain of prevocational students.