Building Social Self-Efficacy: Investigating How Refugee Adolescents Cultivate School Readiness Through a Summer Youth Readiness Program

Each year, as many as 80,000 refugees are permanently resettled to the United States, 35-40% of whom are individuals under the age of 18 (BRYCS, 2009). The period of resettlement can be extremely complex for refugee adolescents who are faced with additional stressors inherent to this developmental period of life, and are challenged with having to navigate new social settings while integrating into American schools. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to investigate to what extent participation in a summer youth readiness program would increase levels of social self-efficacy in refugee adolescents and prepare them to start school feeling equipped to navigate the new school environment. Through pre- and post-program surveys, semi-structured interviews, and observational data, the findings of this study were viewed through Bandura’s (1986) social cognitive framework in order to address how this type of educational programming can help to build self-efficacious beliefs within school social settings, and ultimately help refugee students to cultivate a greater sense of readiness for school in their new cultural context. Overall, these date suggest that participation in a summer youth readiness program may help refugee adolescents to establish meaningful ties to fellow peers and teachers, which may enable them to access knowledge about their new school environment and feel more prepared upon entry in the fall. Additionally, participation in this program may provide an opportunity forstudents to learn through observation from more experienced peers, establish a sense of collective identity among the other students, and feel encouraged to focus on positive goal formation for the future.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Cross-Cultural, International Education

Grantor dc:publisher

Bowling Green State University

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Lambert, Ellen L.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Collet, Bruce

• Education
• Cross-Cultural Education
• Social Self-Efficacy
• Refugee Adolescents
• School Readiness
• Summer Youth Readiness Program

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: some rights reserved. It is licensed for use under a Creative Commons license. Specific terms and permissions are available from this document's record in the OhioLINK ETD Center.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1363190015

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:bgsu1363190015