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Going for the Goal: Improving youths' problem‐solving skills through a school‐based intervention
Author(s) -
O'Hearn Todd C.,
Gatz Margaret
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/jcop.10009
Subject(s) - intervention (counseling) , psychology , life skills , danish , social skills , medical education , mathematics education , pedagogy , developmental psychology , medicine , linguistics , philosophy , psychiatry
This study evaluated Going for the Goal (GOAL), a school‐based intervention designed by Danish and colleagues to teach life skills to at‐risk urban adolescents. We extended previous evaluation of GOAL by including an assessment of means‐ends problem‐solving skills. The 10‐week program was administered to 479 middle school students by 46 trained high school student leaders in a predominantly Hispanic community. The program focused on setting positive, reachable goals; anticipating and responding to barriers to goal attainment; using social support; and building on one's strengths. Results demonstrated gains in knowledge of the skills being taught and improvement in problem‐solving skills. Leaders also showed an increase in their knowledge of life skills. The approach maximizes both community resources and ecological validity while giving high school leaders the chance to benefit in their role as helpers. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.