Mental Health Promotion for Vulnerable African-American Youth

• NCJ Number: 214041
• Journal: Forensic Nursing Volume: 2 Issue: 1 Dated: Spring 2006 Pages: 7-13,32
• Author(s): Deborah Shelton; Nina Lyon-Jenkins
• Date Published: 2006
• Length: 8 pages
• Grant Number(s): D04RH00531A0
• Sponsoring Agency: Health Resources and Services Admin (HRSA)
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This evaluation examined outcomes for 56 African-American youth between 10 and 14 years old who participated in a community-based, 14-week expressive arts program designed for youth at risk of delinquency.

Abstract

The objectives of the program--which was entitled Leadership, Education, Achievement, and Development (LEAD)--were to identify expressive arts activities that were culturally appropriate for African-American youth in middle school, as well as to test the curriculum design by examining outcomes of behavioral self-control, self-esteem, resilience, and protective factors in the participants. Play-based activities and creative arts are appropriate contexts for youth to develop their sense of self, their abilities and skills, and constructive interactions with others. Changes in pretest to posttest scores were statistically significant for measures of self-control, protective factors, and resilience. Satisfaction scores were higher for the program participants (97 percent) than for the control group, which participated in after-school programming (82 percent). There were not police contacts for either the program or control groups. Program participation throughout the summer for 78 percent of the youth confirmed their attachment to facilitators and their enjoyment of program activities; however, youths' self-esteem scores did not improve. The greatest challenge for next year is to improve the involvement of parents and the community in program activities. The evaluation used a pretest/posttest design with a nonrandomized sample of 56 participants between the ages of 10 and 14. Half of these youth, the control group, were also African-American from the same community who participated in an after-school program. Evaluation instruments measured self-esteem, behavioral control, resilience-protective factors, parent-child relationships, and police contacts. 2 tables and 29 references