| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this study is to measure the effects of the Leadership Inspiration
Facilitation Team (LIFT) program on the life effectiveness and locus of control of a
group of sixth grade students at Schultz Middle School. The participants consisted of 36
sixth grade students, ages 10 to 12 years, from a single public middle school. The
participants attended a two-day summer adventure-based ROPES camp.
The Review of Personal Effectiveness and Locus of Control (ROPELOC)
instrument was administered at the beginning (pre-test), the end (post-test), and six
months later (follow-up). The twelve domains of life effectiveness have been identified,
including active involvement, cooperative teamwork, leadership ability, open thinking,
quality seeking, self confidence, self efficacy, social effectiveness, stress management,
time efficiency, coping with change, and overall effectiveness. Two domains of locus of
control were identified: external and internal. Composite ROPELOC, subscale, and
gender data were all analyzed using t-tests of independent samples.
The analysis showed no significant improvement in participants? composite
ROPELOC score between the pre, post, and follow-up. However, there was an increase
between the pre and post, although the increase was not at a significant level. Significant increases in participants? scores were found in three of the 14 ROPELOC subscales:
cooperative teamwork, coping with change, and external locus of control. Significance
for cooperative teamwork was found between the pre-test and post-test. Significance for
coping with change and external locus of control was found between the pre-test and
follow-up, as well as between the post-test and follow-up using a significance of .05.
Gender was found to have made no difference in composite ROPELOC scores.
Participants in the LIFT summer program have increased self-perceptions of life
effectiveness at the immediate conclusion of the program. The degree of significance has
yet to be determined, and the length of significance is still in question. Researchers
maintain that positive youth development is a complex myriad of interventions. Positive
youth development has taken a proactive shift to promote healthy development outcomes
for all youth, in addition to reducing long-term negative outcomes of at-risk youth and
has emerged into its own as an independent field of study. In addition, positive youth
development is resulting from the combination of several factors that lead to the
development of more comprehensive models and the development of programs which
address multiple behaviors and that involve families and community. | en |
