ACCESS TREATMENT ON SELECTED VARIABLES WITH EMOTIONALLY DISTURBED YOUTH

Abstract

This research employs the ACCESS (Action Centered Career Education for Special Students) program to determine whether its career education curriculum significantly affected the self-esteem, independent living competency and job performance of emotionally disturbed high school youth exposed to the program for one full term. Eighty students were randomly assigned to the ACCESS and non-ACCESS treatment groups.;Three hypotheses concerning differences in the self-esteem, independent living competency and job performance were tested in the null form. Data collection was accumulated in two stages: (1) A pretest procedure involved the administration of The Piers-Harris Children's Self Concept Scale to eighty students. In addition, the participating teachers completed the Student Competency Inventory for each student in their classes. (2) The posttest procedure involved the administration of The Piers-Harris Children's Self Concept Scale to the ACCESS treatment non-ACCESS control groups. Also, the Student Competency Inventory was completed by the teachers. Employers completed the Job Performance Rating for each of their employees. Results of data analysis, using the Mann-Whitney U statistics indicated that significant differences existed between ACCESS and non-ACCESS groups with respect to total independent living competency scores, each of the subscores of independent living competency and job performance. Significant differences were not found between ACCESS and non-ACCESS groups with respect to self-esteem.;Other findings were that, for each of the treatment groups, there was a significant relationship (Kendall's tau) between the pretest and posttest scores on self-esteem, total independent living competency and the four subscores of independent living competency. In addition, multiple regression analysis indicated that 89% of the variance in job performance was explained by the joint contribution of the 58 independent living competencies.;It was concluded that emotionally disturbed youth exposed to a comprehensive career education program can acquire the competencies necessary for independent living and successful job performance. Implications of the findings were discussed in terms of future research and the implementation of career education programs for the handicapped.