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Resiliency enhancement: A comparison of after-school child care programs for selected elementary school students

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Date Issued:
2000
Summary:
The purpose of this study was to determine whether at-risk elementary school students enrolled in an after-school program offering resiliency training would be positively affected both academically and behaviorally. Survey results and literature reviews indicate that the issue of at-risk, neglected, or abused students is the number one issue facing society and has moved it to the forefront of educational prominence. Although there is a substantial amount of literature on the subject, most is not research based and is focused only on the pathology or risk factors with which children have to cope, rather than on controlled, evaluative studies that could assess success or failure of specific strategies or programs. The researcher evaluated students from two Florida elementary schools identified by the Florida Department of Education as "critically low performing schools." The students in the population were identified as critically low academic achievers and/or those demonstrating aggressive behaviors. The key characteristics of students targeted were academic performance and behavior in school. The schools identified in the study, in addition to having low academic achievement and a high level of behavior problems, also had demographic issues that contributed to the needs of the school population. The researcher targeted appropriate activities and behaviors necessary to evaluate the programs within each of the schools selected. Although results of the statistical treatment failed to reveal significant differences among the hypotheses tested, resiliency enhancement is still a viable means by which academic or behavioral gains can be made with students. The researcher suggests that additional evaluative activities be incorporated into future studies. It is recommended that further analysis to determine the specifies of problems facing individual schools be more qualitative. It is also suggested that increasing the sample size to increase the power of the analysis will rule out the inconclusiveness of the analysis. Previous research indicates that although students may make academic or behavioral gains, they may still be far from the absolute levels of performance that are recognized as being significant. This research has also established that the imperative for growth and development exists and develops naturally in the presence of certain environmental attributes. Other conclusions and recommendations for further study were offered.
Title: Resiliency enhancement: A comparison of after-school child care programs for selected elementary school students.
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Name(s): Martin, James F.
Florida Atlantic University, College of Education
Morris, John D., Thesis advisor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 2000
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 79 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: The purpose of this study was to determine whether at-risk elementary school students enrolled in an after-school program offering resiliency training would be positively affected both academically and behaviorally. Survey results and literature reviews indicate that the issue of at-risk, neglected, or abused students is the number one issue facing society and has moved it to the forefront of educational prominence. Although there is a substantial amount of literature on the subject, most is not research based and is focused only on the pathology or risk factors with which children have to cope, rather than on controlled, evaluative studies that could assess success or failure of specific strategies or programs. The researcher evaluated students from two Florida elementary schools identified by the Florida Department of Education as "critically low performing schools." The students in the population were identified as critically low academic achievers and/or those demonstrating aggressive behaviors. The key characteristics of students targeted were academic performance and behavior in school. The schools identified in the study, in addition to having low academic achievement and a high level of behavior problems, also had demographic issues that contributed to the needs of the school population. The researcher targeted appropriate activities and behaviors necessary to evaluate the programs within each of the schools selected. Although results of the statistical treatment failed to reveal significant differences among the hypotheses tested, resiliency enhancement is still a viable means by which academic or behavioral gains can be made with students. The researcher suggests that additional evaluative activities be incorporated into future studies. It is recommended that further analysis to determine the specifies of problems facing individual schools be more qualitative. It is also suggested that increasing the sample size to increase the power of the analysis will rule out the inconclusiveness of the analysis. Previous research indicates that although students may make academic or behavioral gains, they may still be far from the absolute levels of performance that are recognized as being significant. This research has also established that the imperative for growth and development exists and develops naturally in the presence of certain environmental attributes. Other conclusions and recommendations for further study were offered.
Identifier: 9780599667464 (isbn), 12636 (digitool), FADT12636 (IID), fau:9519 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Thesis (Ed.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2000.
College of Education
Subject(s): School-age child care
Resilience (Personality trait) in children
Children with social disabilities--Education
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12636
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.