A community-based collaborative project of caring: The effectiveness of family workshops in an urban middle school setting
Abstract
The overall impact of family workshops in an urban middle school setting and a comparison of its three educational instructional methods were evaluated to determine effectiveness and changes in caring, when measured by the Adult Caring and Consumer Satisfaction Questionnaire and by the rate of attrition experienced during a series of six weekly workshops on adolescent development and behavioral management. A sample of 40 adult family members were assigned by stratified random sampling to the different instructional methods. Subjects were nested by class, grade, and classroom longevity in the West Philadelphia Improvement Corps (WEPIC) program at Dr. John P. Turner Middle School. There were two groups for each of the three educational methods: directive, cooperative problem solving, and nondirective instructional approaches. One male and one female specialist in adolescent development served independently as teachers for each method; hence, adults were placed in one of six instructional groups. In addition, an individually administered posttest and a one-month follow-up interview were used to assess changes in the adults' caring for their child as measured by changes in their skills, knowledge, and understanding of their child. Both quantitative and qualitative results of the 1994 WEPIC Family Workshops confirmed overwhelmingly its helpfulness and capacity to produce significant changes in family members' ability to care for their adolescents. In fact, follow-up interviews found family-school-community relationships had been transformed. Caring and competent staff combined with careful planning and organization made the difference. Qualitative results indicated the cooperative problem solving model propelled caring further than either of the other approaches.
Subject Area
Educational psychology|Secondary education|Families & family life|Personal relationships|Sociology
Recommended Citation
Sutton, Margaret Virginia, "A community-based collaborative project of caring: The effectiveness of family workshops in an urban middle school setting" (1995). Dissertations available from ProQuest. AAI9532290.
https://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI9532290