Youth Group for Low-Income Children
Introduction
The purp
This is an excerpt from the paper...
The purpose of this study is to create a youth group for low-income children living in residential treatment facilities or in foster care situations, a group which will help children to develop social skills, deepen their sense of personal and social responsibility, and build their self-esteem. So that the study may be placed within the context of existing work in the field, this chapter of the proposal presents a review of relevant literature. The review specifically examines the effects of youth groups on student development with an emphasis upon research examining for effects on self-esteem and social skills. Youth Groups: Their EffectsAccording to Papalia and Olds (1992), children and adolescents with good social/interpersonal skills and high levels of self-confidence and self-esteem tend to succeed as adults. It is they who become leaders in business and industry, who go into politics, and who, in general, contribute to the social order in a way that is both personally satisfying and meaningful to others. The authors further note that groups such as the 4-H Club and the YMCA have often been touted as providing youths with these attributes and, as a result, helping youngsters to succeed in life. The question can be asked: Is there empirical evidence indicating that membership in a youth group or organization does indeed help to build the self-esteem and social skills of youths? There are studies indicating the veracity of the claim that these groups do help
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ership roles).
There are also indications that belonging to some sort of youth group may help young people develop a desire to be of service to others. Supporting this claim is a study by Drummond (1980) who studied Youthline, a volunteer counselling and problem-sharing telephone service for young people in New Zealand.
The Youthline program was distinctive in that it was operated only by 1630 year olds who were trained and supervised by professionals. In Drummond's study, Youthliners (N=22) were administered a 10-item questionnaire to determine whether there were any common personal or socio-educational characteristics among them.
Findings of the study showed that most Youthliners had some amount of post-high-school education, and their occupations included sales and clerical work, teaching, and service work. About one-third belonged to either a church youth group or some type of secular youth group. According to Drummond, the attributes and characteristics these young people developed as a result of their membership in youth groups was most probably a large part of their willingness to become Youthliners.
Membership in a youth group may also help young people to avoid drug use and addictive behavior. In this reg
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Youth YMCA, Youthliners Membership, Allen Pfeiffer, Papalia Olds, Christian Association, Deschner Rasp, Feraios Herdt, Longitudinal Study, Kleinfeld Shinkwin, Urban Bound, social skills, residential treatment, self-esteem social skills, self-esteem social, youth participation, youth organizations, treatment centers, drop-in center, smoking behavior, membership youth, adult roles, residential treatment centers, drop-in center youth, participation religious youth, youth help people,
Approximate Word count = 2613
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)
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