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Can a self-regulation skills and cultural arts program promote positive outcomes in mental health symptoms and academic achievement for at-risk youth?
- Authors:
- RAPP-PAGLICCI Lisa, STEWART Chris, ROWE William
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Social Service Research, 37(3), May 2011, pp.309-319.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
Self-regulation involves an integrated set of skills drawn from both executive functioning and emotional regulation capabilities. Previous research has demonstrated an association between youth with mental health, behavioural and academic problems and inadequate self-regulation skills. Self-regulation skills programmes and arts-based programmes have separately demonstrated reductions in internalising and externalising disorders and academic difficulties. This study sought to evaluate an after-school programme ‘Prodigy’, which incorporates both arts and self-regulation skills, with regard to changes in mental health symptoms and academic performance. Prodigy is an 8 week programme which offers at-risk youth in Florida the opportunity to participate in classes which use cultural arts as a medium to build self-regulation skills such as social skills, anger management, and problem-solving skills. A quasi-experimental pretest–posttest design was conducted with 108 at-risk adolescents and their parents to evaluate the programme effects. The results demonstrated significant reductions in internalising and externalising mental health symptoms and increases in academic self-efficacy. Positive, but not statistically significant, trends in improved academic achievement were also shown. Future research regarding the potential of arts and self-regulation programmes is discussed.
The impact of neighborhood factors on mental health and academic outcomes for adolescents participating in the Prodigy Program
- Authors:
- STEWART Chris, RAPP-PAGLICCI Lisa, ROWE William
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 21(4), May 2011, pp.383-397.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
The Prodigy Cultural Arts programme offers at-risk youth the opportunity to participate in classes encompassing the visual, performing, musical, media, and theatre arts. The art classes are used as a medium to build 3 types of self-regulation skills in the youth: problem solving; social skills; and anger management. The programme runs for 8 weeks, with youths attending 3 hours per week. A quasi-experimental pre- and post-test design was used to evaluate possible programme effects on the participants’ mental health symptoms and school performance. The study also examined the relationship of neighbourhood structural characteristics, such as neighbourhood poverty and residential instability, to school outcomes. The participants were 108 adolescents who entered the programme between March 2007 and March 2009. The findings showed strong support for the contribution of mental health symptomology to school outcomes. There was also some suggestion that neighbourhood structural characteristics may have an influence on programme outcomes.