Problem-Solving Program for Adolescents' Self-Concept

The theme or key idea for this article was the evaluation of a conflict-resolution and problem-solving program (ABLE) that was designed originally to increase the self-concept and motivation of adolescent gifted underachieving females, but was currently presented to male and female secondary school students.

The problem studied was that students may suffer from low levels of self-concept that may contribute to emotional problems, personal difficulties, and poor social skills. Self-concept is reported to include dimensions of mathematics, verbal, general school, physical ability and appearance, opposite-sex, same-sex, and parent relations, honesty/trustworthiness, emotional stability, and general self. Increased self-concept is related to academic, social, and psychological health; deficits in these areas contribute to youth problems. The ABLE program links conflict-resolution to self-concept and has been evaluated with regard to its use with gifted underachieving girls. The problem is that research regarding the effects of this program on other student populations, is lacking. This study therefore examined whether or not this intervention program, the ABLE (Attribution, Behavior, Life skills Education), was successful in increasing the self-concept of students in a secondary, co-

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o success. Application of findings includes that this program has the potential to plant instructional seeds that encourage students to learn emotional and social skills. Students learn active listening, empathy, perspective taking, cooperation, negotiation, appropriate feelings expression, assertiveness rather than aggressiveness or passivity, diversity appreciation, and alternatives to prejudice and discrimination. Teachers proclaim this program to be a success. RCCP promotes skills that may assist the at-risk student. These skills are helpful in the school environment and can be transferred to situations outside of school. The skills are brought into the community and the rest of the world. Study limitations were not presented. It was concluded that the RCCP intervention has a positive effect on child emotional and social development through the teaching of conflict resolution and diversity education which provides a caring and safe environment and alternatives to hostility and violence. This article provides a description of the programs success rather than an empirical evaluation. Sellers, C. S. (1998). Reality check: Evaluating a school-based gang prevention model. Evaluation Review, 22(5), 590-609. The theme or key
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Approximate Word count = 6063
Approximate Pages = 24 (250 words per page)