Desenvolvimento e Avaliação de Um Currículo de Prospectiva Social para Jovens em Risco.
Desenvolvimento e Avaliação de Um Currículo de Prospectiva Social para Jovens em Risco.
Desenvolvimento e Avaliação de Um Currículo de Prospectiva Social para Jovens em Risco.
ABSTRACT
Traditionally, school-based approaches to remediattng
deficits in social competence have focused on building aspects of
temperament and character. The Socially Adept Verbalizations of Youth
(SAVY) Curriculum, consisting of a series of exercises and
activities, preCeded by brief introductory lessons, was designed to
develop social judgment skills in socially incompetent youths by
decreasing egocentrism and by heightening their perspective-taking
skills. To collect preliminary validation data on the curriculum, 17
adolescent students with behavior problems, who were attending an
alternative inner city high school, were exposed to the SAVY-
curriculum as a 2-week module emphasizing social foresight, i.e.,
anticipating the consequences to oneself of various interpersonal
actions. A control group (N1415) participated in the regular mental
health course withoat the SAVY curriculum. A teacher-rated, modified
version of the Acting Out, Moodiness, and Learning (AML) checklist
was used to assess effects of the curriculum on behavioral
adjustment. An analysis of the results showed that the experimental
group demonstrated significantly greater rated behavioral improvement
than the control group This finding suggests that social foresight
training may be of potential benefit in school-based intervention
programs aimed at adolescents with behavior problems. (Author/BL)
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DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION
OF A SOCIAL FORESIGHT CURRICULUM
FOR AT=RISK YOUTH
CV
Boys Town Urban Program
u, Omaha, NE 68111
Abstract
insight into their emotional response patterns and to acquire greeter self=,
and casework (Eissler, 1949; duttattn. 1970; Redl & Winetan, 1957), s Men
Hebert., & van Doorninck, 1977; McCullough, Huntsinger, & May, 1977; William
(Phillips, Wolf, Fixsen, & Bailey, 1975), as well as much of the work in
Sarason, 1968, 1973; Sarason & Ganzer. 1973; Reid & Patterson, 1976).
Judgment- oriented treatments are intended to help youth to acquire a better
Greenspan. & Barenboim, 19711. and moral judgment (Jurkovic, 1980; Selman,
McClute, Chinsky, & Lorcen, 1978: Shure & Spivack, 1979, 1980; Weissberg,
differentiate between interventions Which are described with the same label
(e.g.. "secial skill training") but which may focus on different aspects of
it may serve to point out directions for future research and program
study reported in this paper, as it becomes obvious from any review of the
social competence intervention literature that far less effort has gone
&Genthter. 1980; Stunphauter, 1973; Amos g wellford. 1957; Wright & Dixon.
1977).
(Selman, 1980). It has been argued that youth with behavior problems have
and in evaluating their own actions from the standpoint of the general
tion that any auth general increase would also result in improvements in
others' psychological states can work to their own advantage. For example.
I
Goldstein* Sherman; ,Gershaw, Sprafkin, and Glick (1978) pointed out that a
tactics in conflict situations was their belief that they would lose face
by doing so.
may be to demonstrate to them how the use of such skills will enable them
more likely to result in a loss rather than a gain in dignity and other
enable one to not only stay out of trouble* but show superior "smartness"
how perspective- taking will make them more effective and "cool" manipula-
tors oC others. While there is acme risk that such an approach will result
such attitudinal and social judgment changes will generally far outweigh
the negative.
The current paper reports any attempt to develop, and collect prelimi
in that one needs to be able to put oneself in the shoes of another if one
fold belief that: (a) culturally disadvantaged youth frequently get into
other people, particularly authority figures, will respond, and (b) such
youth can grasp readily hOw social foresight might give them a strategic
edge in encounters with peers and adults. As can be inferred from the
judgment skills and on convincing youth that the use of such skills is in
of Whom had been expelled or suspended tram previous schools, many of whom
whom are at-risk for becoming socially ineffective adults; The SAVY
Curriculum, which can be used in various settings and formats, was here
foresight focus may have potential utility as a means for helping socially
behavior.
meth6d
Subjects
(until a 1980 merger with Father Flanagan's BOys' HOMO 114 the CathOliO
(known since 1980 as the "Boys Town Urban Program") may be constdered
The current field test of the SAVY Curriculum was conducted within the
Although enrollment In the mental health course was voluntary, the school's
9
guidance counselor typically encouraged stUdents who were having adjustment
sample in this study, nine were in the ninth grade, twelve in the tenth
grakie; seven in the eleventh grade and four in the twelfth grade; Since
many of the students had earned few credits in previous schools, the grade
designations did not translate meaningfully into ages and there was less
age from 14 to 20, two-thirds of the subjects were one year older or
younger than the mean age of 16.0. Of the 15 female subjects, six were
black while nine were White;. of the 17 male subjects, 7 were black while 10
were white; A number of the subjects lived in group or fester hoses, most
used drugs and/or alcohol on a regular basis, and almost all of the
Prodedure
in a '"mental health" course which met for one burr per day over the course
of a nine-week school term; The course was offered each quarter, with the
intervention offered twice (with different groups), once during the first
the 1930=4901 30,h0001 deer. ":8'iven the school's emphasis on email class
size, the course was offered in two sections durtng each of the two
OiCance counselor, For the class meeting in the first term, the earlier-
sleeting of the two sections was assigned to the Experimental condition (the
10
group exposed to the SAVY Curriculum) while the later-meeting section was
for the WO sections meeting during the fourth term; Thus, as much as Was
the framework of one of the two sections (the *Experimental' group) meeting
during each of the two terms. The nodule commenced at the beginning of the
fourth week of the mental health course and mmt one hour per day fbr ten
consecutive class sessions. The Control group was exposed to the regular
mental health course without the SOY Curriculum; The primary focus of the
mental health course was on drug and alcohol education with a secondary
of lectures and group therappAype methods was used. The Control group
received a more expanded version of the mental health curriculum than did
therapy-type sessions.
The teacher in charge of all four sections was the school's director er
Social Services, a white female around 30 years of age. The first author
teacher (playing a relatively inactive role) for all four Experimental and
Control sections and attended all sessions throughOut each nine -week
course. miring the period in wtich the SAVY Curriculum was taught in the
two Experimental sections however the first author took over the primary
inactive role.
11
During the last (ninth) week of the t4rm. each student's English or
Reading teacher was asked to fill out a checklist, indicating the extent to
indices during the preceding nine weeks. While these ttachers were aware
that the students had been enrolled in the mental health course, they were
least 50% attendance during the two weeks in which the SAVY curriculum was
subjects were dropped from the E group for this reason, while eight were
dropped from the C group. Thus, 17 E subjects and 15 C subjects were used
ineffectiveness;
(Brown & Greenspan, note 4). These mnits all involve scme degree of focus
12
on "social foresight; i.e.; on the ability to accurately forecast
Say it Twice " focused on non-verbal behavior such as gestures and vocal
intonation and required students to stand in front of the class and say the
some other things to do") in two ways: one of which would, and the other
actions (e.g.i telling a teacher you had lost your homework). Unit 010=
this exercise was to help students learn to make more rational calculations
Typically, the units were presented in sequ.nce; with each unit taking
condensed fashion in this study, with only ten one-hour lessons compressed
hours, perhaps doing parts of the curriculum two or three times a week over
13
Behavior-Rating-Measure
children (Duriak, Stein, & Hannarino, 1980; Kirschenbaum, Harsh, & Devoge,
1977; Sandler' DUricko, & Grande, 1975). Although the AML was originally,
intended for use with younger children; it was pointed out by Dort.,
Stephens, Pozner, and Klodt (1980) that the measure has been found to be
of the AML;
The revision used in the current study involved the addition of five
items to the original eleven. The five new items all are designed to tap
feelings," "is skillful in dealings with others," etc; The original scale
contained one item dealing with learning difficulties* while the other ten
items were equally divided into thOse assessing acting-out behavior (e.g.,
"gets into fights and quarrels with other students") and those assessing
moodiness (e.g., "feels hurt when criticized"). Thus, the revised AML
Whereas the 11 original items are all worded negatively (i.e., in terms
Besides thus expanding the item pool, an additional Change was made in the
14
(i.e., by asking how well each item characterized him/her), we asked
teachers to rate the degree of positive or negative change noticed for the
student on each item during the nine-week quarter preceding the rating;
The reason for utilizing a change index rather than a characteristic index
A five=point scale was used, with a 1 indicating the youth had become
indicating the youth had not changed, a 4 indicating the youth had become
"somewhat more,," and a 5 indicating the youth had become "much more" like
ach of the 16 items during the weeks preceding the rating; In scoring the
item wording was positive or negative) such that a score of four or five
while a score of one or two indicated negative change (eigii became more
overall change; In this study, scores were summed across all 16 items and
only total change scores were used. Although reliability data does not
exist for the modified version of the AML used in this study, there is
considerable evidence that the 11 -item version has highly acceptable test
15
that the addition of five new items would alter the scale's reliability
appreciably.
Results
The data support the hypothesis that use of the SAW Curriculum can
change for the experimental group (N = 17) waz 52.24 (SD : 7.38), while the
mean change adore for the 0Ontrol group (N a 15) was 46.87 (SD = 9.78).
.05, one-tailed). Support for the assertion that social foresight training
(1977); If one calculates the Effect Site index "d" by dividing the
average standard deviation (8.5), the resulting score of .63 falls into the
Thus, the importance of the finding that the experimental group changed
the degree of overlap between the two groups. if one divides the two
samples at the grand mean of 49.72, which is slightly above the point
(score of 48) Whidh divides thOse rated as having improved from those rated
improvement scores in the two groups, the results are highly revealing;
For the experimental group, the frequency Of "good" (above the grand mean)
Thus, the Control subjects had a 27% chance of improving while the
Discussion
(Little & Kendall, 1979) have developed to help youth acquire greater
insight into the ways in which impulsive or antisocial behaviors may work
17
That the SAVY Curriculum had a significant impact on rated social
size; the time4imited nature of the intervention; and the short amount of
that a more lengthy exposure to the curriculum might have had an even
conduct the training over a longer time frame than the two weeks used in
this study.
therapeutic settings was enhanced by the fact that the majority of the
which most adolescents. given their concerns over popularity and group
be no less eager to think about such matters. The anecdotal finding that
lends support to our earlier contention that social foresight training has
it may be argued that the promising thing about social foresight treming
18
facilitating naturally-occuring developmental processes, something which is
assume that social foresight training (even in an expanded and more refined
statement which implies: (a) that some youth (whose problems are rooted
benefit from social roresight training, and (b) that a mUlti-mbdal form-of
the results of this study suggest that greater attention should be paid to
Nebraska 68010);
Pennsylvania 15261);
Bornstein, M.i Bellecki A. S., & Herseni M. Social skiUs training for
Camp, B. W.; Blom, G. E., Hebert, F., & van Doorninck, W. J. "Think
546-553=
Dorri D.i Stephens, J., Pozner, R., & Elodt, W. Use of the AML Scale to
341=362.
21
Durlak. J. A., Stein, M. Ai. & Mennariho. A. P. Behavioral validity of a
8, 101=115.
Ges.en, E. L.6 Flores de Apodaca, R.. Rains, M., Weissberg, R. P. & Cowen,
Goldstein. A. P.. Sherman. Mi. Gershaw. N. Ji. Sprafkin, R. Pi. & Glick, B.
Handbook of mental-retardation: P
M. 709=727.
RedI, F., & Wineman, D. The aggressive child. New Yerk: Free PreSs,
1957.
23
Raid. J. B., & Patterson, G. R. The modification of aggression and
A. Banda (Eds.),
Robins; L. N. kilat..1LLyADevienteowsocioloicaandchistrio
Krieger, 1974.
Press, 1974.
24
Shantz, C. U. The ftvelopment of social cognition. In E. M. Hetherington
Weissberg, R. P., Gesten, E. L., Rapkin, B. D., Cowen, E. L., Davidson. E.,
49, 251=261.
1-
This article is based on-a 1981 doctoral dissertation by Gwyn H. Brown
authors are deeply grateful to the staff of the Boys Town Urban Program,
assistance and cooperation. Funding for this study was provided solely by
judgment" is preferable.
27