ondary student population, was implied.
The predictions for this study were not formally stated, however, they were implied. Since the ABLE had previously demonstrated positive results with gifted underachieving girls, it was implied that it might also be beneficial to other students.
The article provided an adequate bibliography to support the study, with an introduction to the problem, definitions of the variables, previous use of the ABLE, and possible explanations for findings.
The sample for the study included 20 male and female secondary school students who were randomly assigned to a treatment or control group. These students were from a non-government, co-educational school in Australia. Criteria used to identify the target students included a low score on the Self-Description Questionnaire-II (SDQ-II) and concerns of the school counselor regarding the students' social behavior. A group of 34 students met the first criteria and of this group, 20 were selected by school personnel. Students volunteered to participate in the ABLE program, which was introduced as a problem-solving program. Each group included five girls and five boys. Students were mostly Caucasian and came from two-parent families. The sample had higher rates of school absenteeism than other students and they demonstrated the common feature of a tension between either the teacher and the student or the student and their parent. Each group was matched for the 11 variables on the self-concept domains.
The study findings were consistent with the previous results of using the ABLE program with gifted underachieving girls.
Falsification principles were not formally utilized since there was no hypothesis and therefore no null hypothesis to prove false.
New data for this study included that related to a new student population. Previous use of the ABLE was restricted to gifted underachieving girls. New data was relevant to male and female secon...