Empowering youth to change their world: Identifying key components of a community service program to promote positive development

Prior to graduating from high school, the vast majority of youth in the United States will take part in at least one community service activity. Although it is frequently assumed that community service is inherently beneficial to those that take part, the activities and processes of youth service programs tend to be unsystematic and vary widely. In addition, empirical assessment of youth service programs is inconsistent and often lacks methodological rigor. The present paper addresses these concerns in a preliminary evaluation of both the process experience and the outcomes of a theoretically grounded school-based community service program for urban adolescents. The evaluation focuses on identifying key components of a youth community service program, assessing whether the program was experienced as it was intended, and providing preliminary data on participant outcomes. Findings indicate that the program was experienced as both empowering (i.e., guided by student initiative, preferences, and strengths) and promoting a sense of community (i.e., encouraged cooperation and collective decision making). Results also suggest that taking part in the community service program increased youths' self-reported empathy and intent to be involved in future community action, as compared to a group of matched controls. Implications and recommendations for developing and evaluating service-learning or community service programs in the schools are discussed.     

Using ethnographic methods for development of culture-specific interventions

Cultural specificity is considered important in developing effective school- and community-based interventions. This article illustrates the use of ethnographic research to enhance understanding of students' cultural experiences and facilitate the development of culturally specific interventions. Ethnographic data were collected during formative and intervention phases of a school-based mental health promotion project. Data were coded using an interactive deductive-inductive process. Culture specificity was defined as the integration of etic (universal) and emic (culture-bound) perspectives. Four culture-specific themes were identified: adult-sanctioned behaviors and practices, adolescents' perspectives about the present and aspirations for the future, and societal factors. These themes encompassed code categories reflecting cultural attitudes, beliefs, customs, expectations, norms, and values; and reflected the ecological framework that guided the research. Future research is needed to address the use of combined etic-emic conceptualizations of culture in the development of culture-specific interventions.     

The Effects of Mother Participation in Relationship Education on Coparenting,Parenting, and Child Social Competence: Modeling Spillover Effects for Low‐Income Minority Preschool Children

Although suggestions are that benefits of relationship and marriage education (RME) participation extend from the interparental relationship with parenting and child outcomes, few evaluation studies of RME test these assumptions and the relationship among changes in these areas. This quasi‐experimental study focuses on a parallel process growth model that tests a spillover hypothesis of program effects and finds, in a sample of low‐income minority mothers with a child attending a Head Start program, that increases in mother reports of coparenting agreement for RME participants predict decreases in their reports of punitive parenting behaviors. Although improvements in parenting behaviors did not predict increases in teacher reports of children's social competence, improvements in coparenting agreement were associated with increases in children's social competence over time. In addition, comparative tests of outcomes between parents in the program and parents in a comparison group reveal that RME program participants (n = 171) demonstrate significant improvements compared to nonparticipants (n = 143) on coparenting agreement, parenting practices, and teachers' reports of preschool children's social competence over a 1 year period. The findings are offered as a step forward in better understanding the experiences of low‐resource participants in RME. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Design of randomized controlled trials: Principles and methods applied to a treatment for early stuttering

The “gold standard” methodology for treatment efficacy research is the randomized controlled trial (RCT), which is used extensively in medical research and in other areas such as psychology. Results from a well designed and conducted RCT, which show a new treatment to be clinically and statistically superior to current standard practice, can lead to a change in clinical practice. This paper presents a tutorial on RCTs, presenting and discussing the following principles and methods: the trial protocol, choice of control treatment, eligibility criteria, random allocation, outcomes and hypotheses, sample size, subject recruitment, analysis by intention to treat, interim analysis, stopping rules, safety data monitoring/trial management, and study documentation. RCTs are a complicated and logistically involved methodology. Hence, prior to the commitment of resources to such a trial in the development of a new treatment, the safety and clinical promise of the new treatment needs to be demonstrated with preliminary studies. Such preliminary studies have been completed for the Lidcombe Program (LP) of early stuttering intervention, and an RCT of that treatment is being conducted at the time of writing. The principles and methods of RCTs are illustrated with reference to that study.

Educational objectives: The reader will understand the design principles and methods of RCTs. The reader will understand the logistics of conducting a RCT of a treatment for early stuttering.     

“Here we're all in the same boat” – a qualitative study of group based rehabilitation for sick‐listed citizens with chronic pain

Musculoskeletal pain impacts upon everyday life. A degree of chronicity may pose an increased risk of sickness absence. One of two rehabilitative interventions, “Tailored Physical Activity” or “Chronic Pain Self‐Management Program”, was offered to sick‐listed citizens who experienced pain. The objectives of this paper were to: (1) Assess what factors are experienced as problematic for sick‐listed citizens in everyday life with chronic pain, and (2) Evaluate the significance of two distinct rehabilitative interventions on the future everyday lives of sick‐listed citizens. Seven semi‐structured interviews with sick‐listed citizens were analyzed using a phenomenological‐hermeneutical approach. Results were discussed by applying the theoretical framework of Antonovsky's salutogenetic model and Yaloms principles for group psychology. The potential for development of citizen's coping is evaluated based on Roessler's notion of progression. The analysis revealed four main themes: (1) Living with pain and unemployment; (2) “Putting my foot down” and “asking for help”; (3) Significance of the group, including instructors, and; (4) Aspects significant to progression. Unemployment is a major life event that promotes stress and can be accompanied by problems related to depressed mood, acceptance of the life situation, feelings of not being useful, feelings of losing control and identity conflicts. Group characteristics that gave a significant basis for progression in the self‐management program are both emotional and instrumental, while the physical training program offers a “here‐and‐now”‐experience and motivation to participate. This study indicates that the self‐management program could potentially improve coping while the physical activity program revealed one example of a means of progression.     

Development and Implementation of a Sport Psychology Program in an Urban High School

SUMMARY

This article is based on a dissertation of the author that was centered on the process of developing a sport psychology program at the high school level. The program was developed to address academic, mental, social, and emotional needs of student-athletes and coaches. This sport psychology program, which was developed in the Linden Public School District, a large urban district in New Jersey, may be the first such program documented on a national level. In this dissertation, the author, who was a school psychologist in the district, utilized a particular program planning and evaluation framework, with attention to the first two phases-clarification and designto develop and implement a sport psychology program.     

Reporting a program evaluation: Needs,program plan,intervention, and decisions

The approach to intervention programs varies depending on the methodological perspective adopted. This means that health professionals lack clear guidelines regarding how best to proceed, and it hinders the accumulation of knowledge. The aim of this paper is to set out the essential and common aspects that should be included in any program evaluation report, thereby providing a useful guide for the professional regardless of the procedural approach used. Furthermore, the paper seeks to integrate the different methodologies and illustrate their complementarity, this being a key aspect in terms of real intervention contexts, which are constantly changing. The aspects to be included are presented in relation to the main stages of the evaluation process: needs, objectives and design (prior to the intervention), implementation (during the intervention), and outcomes (after the intervention). For each of these stages the paper describes the elements on which decisions should be based, highlighting the role of empirical evidence gathered through the application of instruments to defined samples and according to a given procedure.     

学校心理学专业化

本文扼要介绍由联合国教科文组织和国际教育局于1948年召开的第一次有关学校心理学的会议,此作为学校心理学始倡,以及会议分发给世界各国政府的问卷节要,讨论了学校心理学的不同任务,特别是普通教育系统中特殊教育的随班就读的各项任务。本文还概述了学校心理学在智力甑别、社会适应、教学咨询和职业指导方面的作用;尝试性地提出了以前忽略学校心理学的问题,指出它在我国将来发展的前景。