Effects of a group counseling career intervention on the hopefulness and future orientation of at-risk middle school students

<p>The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a small group counseling career intervention on levels of total hope, willpower (agency), waypower (pathways), and future orientation of at-risk middle school students attending an urban middle school in Southeast Michigan. This true experimental, randomized, pretest-posttest control group design compared the statistical outcomes of a small group counseling career intervention with a control group. Forty-four middle school students in the eighth grade (18 males and 26 females) were randomly selected and participated in the research study. Twenty-two students were randomly assigned to an experimental group and twenty-two students were assigned to a control group. Experimental group participants completed the bi-weekly, 60-minute group counseling sessions, over a six-week period. A univariate ANCOVA with group membership as the fixed independent variable was used to compare post scores with pre scores as covariates for each of the dependent variables, total hope, willpower (agency), waypower (pathways) and future orientation. A statistically significant difference was found for total hope and willpower (agency) between the experimental and control group. No statistically significant difference was found for waypower (pathways) and future orientation between the experimental and control group. Limitations of the current study are presented and recommendations for future research are offered.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Open Access Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Counselor Education

Year dc:date.available

2011

Author dc:creator

• Macey, Amy Kathryn

Contributors dc:contributor

• Arnold B. Coven

• At-Risk
• Career Counseling
• Group Counseling
• Hope
• Middle School
• Counseling Psychology
• Psychology
• Student Counseling and Personnel Services

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations/283

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.wayne.edu:oa_dissertations-1282