The purpose of this study was to empirically measure the effectiveness of a school-based intervention program for elementary children whose parents had been recently separated. Forty-nine third through sixth grade students in a northwestern Indiana county participated in the study. The sample consisted of twenty-six treatment and 23 control subjects; 30 females and 19 males participated.The hypothesis addressed was: Male and female elementary children who receive treatment will demonstrate a statistically significant different attitude toward their' parents' separation or divorce, school behaviors, and self concept when compared to children who receive no treatment.The independent variable was a subject's participation in a ten-week, school-based intervention program. The intervention program was based on a model proposed by the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. The dependent variables were attitudes toward parental separation/divorce (Children's Attitude Toward Parental Separation Inventory), self concept (Piers-Harris Self Concept Scale), and school-related behaviors (Devereux ElementarySchool Behavior Rating Scale). Sex of the children was a moderator variable.The study employed a nonequivalent control group design using a pretest-posttest format. A 2 x 2 nonorthogonal factorial design was used. Multivariate and urivariate analyses of variance procedures were used to test initial (pretest) differences and the hypothesis of no difference between treatment and control groups.The multivariate analysis of variance of the pretest scores found no significant difference between the control and treatment groups pretest scores. In the univariate analysis of the pretest data, a significant sex difference was noted on one Devereux variable measuring inattentive-withdrawn behavior.In the multivariate and univariate analysis of the posttest data, no significant treatment or interaction of sex and treatment effects were recorded. In this study treatment did not significantly effect a child's self concept, attitudes toward separation/divorce, or school behaviors.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/180931 |
| Date | January 1984 |
| Creators | Snyder, Kathryn Sue Anderson |
| Contributors | Miller, Ebert L. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | vi, 92 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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