The viewed article, A Preventive Intervention Program for Urban African American Youth Attending an : Background, Implementation, and Feasibility seeks to address how this research is supposed to help young African American children that have problematic behavior and have engaged in risky sexual behaviors. The questions that the researchers were attempting to answer in this article were whether a program could help attempt to decrease the likelihood of school failure and school dropout.

They wanted to come up with school-based preventive intervention approaches targeting highly vulnerable individuals, which are primarily based on . Many questions about intervention approaches towards schools. What type of training would be provided for the staff? Can we change childrens behaviors? Would the children’s families want to be involved? Honestly, there are so many questions, especially trying to come up with a program idea. They believed that these questions needed to be answered to address the unique and specialized needs of troubled city youth. The legislature of the state in which the after-school program under investigation was implemented authorized the creation of within the state’s largest city public school system ( Steven B. Carswell et al 2009) .

I will keep reading this article because I believe the research hypotheses can be found to be effective in urban African American youth. As stated, the independent variable stands alone and is not changed by the other variables. How the independent and dependent variables in this study should be presented. The African American youth were the only thing that remained constant. I think the dependent variable in this article is the deviant behaviors of the youth because the goal is to change the youth’s behavior and academic shortcomings, and there attended in school. These variables operationalized in a way in which the behaviors were measured by self-reported information about the children. How would they measure their behavior and activities? Whom would they be influenced by? Also, the parents took an interview base questionnaire to help with more personal background.

The participants are African American youth, male and female, ages 1116, and how they were selected was in the process where youth in grades 6 through 10 were expelled from traditional city public schools for one or more ofthe followingreasons: 1) violent and/or aggressive acts directed at teachers, students, or school personnel; 2) chronic behavioral problems and/or disruptive acts; 3) illegal drug possession; 4) arson offenses, bomb threats, and/or property destruction; and 5) bringing dangerous weapons (e.g., knives, guns) onto school property (Steven B. Carswell et al. 2009). The collected their data by having two pilot studies: one at an alternative education site, one involving the use of focus groups with both students and one using a case management approach involving the families of the students. If you get to know the family, theres more to it, so you will understand the dynamics of the children. This pilot study gives them a much more realistic idea of the types of problems they would encounter. The procedures used to test the specific hypothesis are training for staff to help with the youth to understand how to approach the problems they will be having.

The in the classroom is a good idea. The award systems help with behaviors and getting parents involved in their children’s learning. The key finding is that during the program, of the 60 students who participated in the intervention, 21 failed to complete the program. Analysis of participant information indicated that students who failed to complete the program were essentially equivalent to those students who completed the program (Steven B. Carswell et al 2009).

As stated, it was hard to begin a program like this in which the child or the parent being involved as much as needed. When the research started, they noticed that most of the youth had been locked up already and that they were easily influenced by peers. For me, the hypotheses was supported, but I do not think it was the outcome they were hoping for. It seems like this was not the only research done on this topic, but it will be interesting to know more and how they can see what needs to be fixed. It would be very interesting to see if the methods and procedures they used were going to work.

The questionnaire for the parents was good. As stated, some parents are not involved, and a family member is raising the child, or they are single mothers or fathers was stated in the article. I was shocked as they stated that they were trying to reach out to the parents, but some did not respond to the phone call or even the business card. Were there noticeable strengths and weaknesses in the study y es, it was when they did the test pilot. They learned a lot from the families and children, but when they started the actual program, it seemed like they were struggling for a while with the building and trying to get everything in order also took time off. One of the things I notice is that they require extensive training for teachers in order for them to better understand the children. The results and conclusions fit into the understanding of the subject by the program. It needs a little more work to understand the program. I think they expected a better result from dealing with the program. Looking at the results, what can they change to better help the understanding of this research?

Reference

Preventive Intervention Program for Urban African American Youth Attending Alternative Education Programs: Background, Implementation, and Feasibility

Steven B. Carswell et al. – Education and Treatment of Children – 2009