Abstract
African American youth are twice as likely to be arrested and seven times as likely to be placed in a detention facility as white youth (Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), 1999). Challenges of pre-adolescence require a firm foundation of trust, autonomy and initiative to assure readiness for developing and asserting individual identity. Poverty, family disruption, school difficulties, and/or personal disruptive behaviors in response to frustration put youth at risk for arrested development and a lifetime of emotional and physical health problems as well as early detention (Emerson & Shelton, 2001). Disruptive behavior problems are common in children and youth, and are among the most frequent reasons for seeking behavioral health services in the pediatric population (Scahill, 2001). African American families whose youth participate in after-school programs at selected School-age Learning Centers in northeast Washington, DC are unlikely to seek mental health services due to the stigma and to their belief that strict discipline is the answer to disruptive behavior (personal communication, JR. 2002). Given these challenges more studies are needed to assist families to find interventions that promote pro-social behavior and development of basic learning skills to motivate youth toward success. This research proposal aims to confirm a clinically meaningful impact of a behavior modification strategy on behavioral functioning and resilience in a sample of 9-to-12 year-old at-risk youth. The experiment will use a randomized case-control design in which youth will be assigned to a social skills training group (SST) using arts-based projects as a medium of instruction, or a waiting group (control). Treatment groups will be 4-8 youth, one facilitator, and one youth mentor completing a 12-week cycle. All subjects complete assessment batteries at intake. post-treatment, and at 3-month follow-up. Parents or guardians will sign consent for youth participation, youth will sign an assent form, and there will be a reward for completing testing. Instruments used will be the Oppositional Defiant scale of the SNAP-IV (Swanson, 1992) to measure disruptive behavior, the Polk Resiliency Scale, and projective instruments such as the House- Tree-Person Drawing and Personal Statements to provide non-verbal assessment shown to be useful in this population in a previous study (Emerson, 2003).
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