THE EFFECTS OF A PROJECT ADVENTURE PROGRAM ON THE INTERPERSONAL SKILLS OF RESIDENTIAL YOUTH

• Main Authors: LU, TSAI-HUI, 呂采徽
• Other Authors: WEI, HSI-SHENG
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/50591937090535826398

碩士 === 國立臺北大學 === 社會工作學系 === 100 === The Family is a primary agent of socialization that plays an important role in shaping the life and behavior of an individual. However, most residential youths are from dysfunctional families and are victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Because of their family background, the residential youth is more vulnerable than the average teenagers. Residential youth often grow up in dysfunctional families and experience negative life experiences in their early years. They have received negative feedback from original families; therefore it is difficult for them to obtain effective interpersonal interaction skills. Unhealthy family patterns cause some negative influences on teens, such as post-traumatic stress syndromes, low self-esteem, helplessness, anxiety, depression or emotional distress. These teens are unable to have good interpersonal skills and are in lack of trust in people. They experience difficulties in building up or maintaining good relationships with others. Because of poor relationships, it is difficult for them to gain academic achievement, and some of them may have behavior problems such as attacking other people, substance abuse, and criminal or self-harm behavior. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the instant and delayed effects of “Project Adventure Program " on residential youth. The program has three stages (ground activities, high altitude experience, backpacking) of interactive teaching strategies to improve the interpersonal skills of these youth. In this study, 11 participants were recruited to attend project adventure program. 5 of the participants were consented to be the subjects of this study. Based on the program evaluation framework, a single-case design was used. The research method is a mixture of both a qualitative examination and the multiple triangulations of quantitative measurement to capture the dynamic development and performance of residential youths. More specifically, the qualitative data collection methods include observation, document analysis and in-depth interviews and the researcher adopted a “Teenager’s Experience in Social Behavior Rating Scale” with modifications for quantitative data collection and applied the scale to pre- and post-tests to observe the changes in teenagers’ interpersonal skills. Main findings of this study are as follows: 1.The project adventure program has enhanced residential youth’s interpersonal skills in nine areas including "Cultivating a respectful attitude” ," Eliminating Stereotypes", "From acting passively to actively", "Increase in reciprocity", "Enhancing the motivation of helping people”, "Enhancing the ability to manage conflict”, ”Enhancing self-efficacy”, "Changes in personality", "Positive experiences of learning” , and so on. 2.The project adventure program provided five important element of interpersonal skills to residential youth, including: (1)Through the implementation of the program of team goals to enhance cohesion of residential youths. (2)The autonomous planning of activities by the residential youths. (3)To strengthen the establishment of the team and facilitate group morale and cohesion. (4)To grasp the learning opportunities of extraordinary events . (5) To facilitate intrapersonal energy of residential youths. 3.After residential youths participated in the project adventure program, they have consistently demonstrated better outcomes in interpersonal skills. 4.Two months later, there are five participants felt that their “inappropriate behavior” was decreased as a result of participation in the project adventure program. However, as to "adaptive behavior", the program failed to produce a delayed effect. Finally, from a practical angle, this study provides specific directions for residential practical social workers, project adventure program workers, and researchers in related fields. It is hoped that the findings of this study can encourage the social workers in Taiwan to use project adventure in youth counseling and services. It also hopes to promote more interesting and diverse residential youth leisure activities program in the future.