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Underachieving high school students as mental health aides with maladapting primary‐grade children
Author(s) -
Tefft Bruce M.,
Kloba Joseph A.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1007/bf00896066
Subject(s) - mental health , psychology , citation , health psychology , school psychology , library science , public health , medicine , psychiatry , pedagogy , nursing , computer science
Underachieving high school students participated in a companionship program with primary-grade children experiencing either acting-out or shy-anxious school adjustment problems. Program helpers improved significantly more than matched underachieving and average-achieving control groups on several teacher-rated behavioral dimensions. No school participation or sociometric gains were observed, however, and behavioral improvement was eroded at 1-year follow-up. Acting-out children improved significantly more on teacher ratings of classroom adjustment than a matched control group and maintained their advantage at follow-up. Shy-anxious children improved significantly less than matched controls. This differential effectiveness is attributed to the fit or match between underachieving students' personal characteristics and natural helping style and the different needs of acting-out and shy-anxious children.