Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Special Education, Counseling and Student Affairs / Judith K. Hughey / Many efforts have been directed towards providing equitable access to higher education for youth from low-income, first-generation families. Despite gains, attendance and graduation rates from college are consistently lower for these students (U.S. Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics, 2012). A variety of initiatives have been implemented to support students' entry into college, persistence to graduation, and increased access to professional careers. One such program is Talent Search, which provides middle school students opportunities to achieve academic success and to become knowledgeable about college and career options. KU Talent Search offers a summer career camp as part of its programming. The Career Horizons Summer Program (CHSP) exists to help students between 6th and 7th grades explore career possibilities, build potential for success in academics and careers, and become more comfortable in a college environment (Dukstein, 2012b). This study examined beliefs about college and careers in a group of 52 students, as well as the impact of the CHSP on the intervention group. Educational aspirations and expectations, and career and college-going self-efficacy were assessed. It was predicted that participation in the camp would result in an increase in college-going and career self-efficacy. The study also provided additional insight into the construct of college-going self-efficacy. Using a quantitative comparison group design, data were collected from camp participants and from students who were eligible to participate but did not. Pre and posttest surveys assessed educational aspirations and expectations and included scales to measure career self-efficacy (Fouad & Smith, 1997) and college-going self-efficacy (Gibbons & Borders, 2010a). Educational aspirations and expectations were high in all participants and a bivariate correlation analysis revealed that career self-efficacy and college-going self-efficacy were highly correlated. Comparisons between the intervention and the comparison group suggested that the CHSP did have an impact on career and college self-efficacy. It is important to understand the characteristics of a successful college and career access program, and to identify interventions that are most impactful. The findings of this study add to understanding of one such intervention and may have implications for specific practices that can increase potential for college success.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Special Education, Counseling and Student Affairs / Judith Hughey / The purpose of this phenomenological research study was to describe and to understand the experience of being in a PhotoTherapy group for adolescent females in treatment for self-injurious behaviors. The research question was as follows: (1) What was the essence of the experience of a series of PhotoTherapy group sessions for female adolescents with a history of self-injurious behaviors? After the completion of two semi-structured interviews with 5 participants, the researcher acknowledged the emergence of four themes that expressed the essence of the experience of being a part of a PhotoTherapy group process as an adolescent female in treatment for self-injurious behaviors. The themes were the following: Self, Connection with others, Emotions, Motivations in treatment. These themes developed a description of the interactions, emotions, behaviors and thoughts that occurred throughout the group work process. Self-injury is a complex issue and the literature states a need for creative interventions. The study collaborated the needs in the field of self-injury treatment with the resources available from PhotoTherapy. The study gained perspective and understanding of how the experience of being in a PhotoTherapy group impacted the individual. In mental health and education, counselors can use the data and conclusions from this research to understand the use of PhotoTherapy group work with adolescent girls that self injure. The researcher concludes that counseling professionals have an understanding of creative interventions and the personal experiences endure with the use of creative interventions such as, PhotoTherapy to have a holistic perspective on treatment practices.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Special Education, Counseling and Student Affairs / Judy Hughey / Assessment of parenting stress and child acting-out behavior was measured via pretest and posttest over the length of a seven-session parenting program, the Becoming a Love and Logic Parent program (BLLP). All participants (n=86) were randomly placed in either a seven-session BLLP program group (n=56) or placed on a waitlist (n=30) and offered the BLLP program following the completion of the posttest. The BLLP program is a widely used parenting program with limited data available as to the effectiveness of the program. The data that are available utilizes the Becoming a Love and Logic Parent Before and After Questionnaire. A measurement tool designed specifically to measure the BLLP program. This study utilized two measurement tools widely used to evaluate parenting programs, the Parenting Stress Index/Short Form (PSI/SF) and the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI), in hopes of providing data that can be compared to other parenting programs. Levels of parenting stress were measured with a widely used index, the PSI/SF. The PSI/SF provides a Total Stress (TS) score and scores from three scales measuring different aspects of parenting stress: Parental Distress (PD), Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interaction (P-CDI), and Difficult Child (DC). Child acting-out behavior was measured with the ECBI. The ECBI measures disruptive child behavior using two scales: Intensity scale and a Problem scale. The intensity scale provides information regarding the frequency of certain acting-out behaviors, and the problem scale provides information as to whether or not parents view that particular behavior as problematic. All participants were parents or caregivers of elementary school students from a large suburban school district near Kansas City, Missouri. The group was homogenous in nature and had higher income and education levels than the average for the district and state, making it difficult to generalize finding from the study. Due to time and space limitations and attrition, the sample size of the study was small (n=86), which likely contributed to the outcome of the study. The six hypotheses were not supported in this study. Though a decrease in parenting stress occurred for both treatment group and control group participants, there was not a statistically significant difference between the two groups on any of the PSI/SF scales. Child acting-out behavior also decreased for both the treatment group and the control group; however, there was not a statistically significant difference between the two groups. Further study on the effectiveness of the BLLP program is recommended.