Graduation Year
2018
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree
Ph.D.
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Degree Granting Department
Psychological and Social Foundations
Major Professor
Linda M. Raffaele Mendez, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Shannon Suldo, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Janise Parker, Ph.D.
Committee Member
John Ferron, Ph.D.
Keywords
coping, hope, life satisfaction
Abstract
To date, few multicomponent interventions focused on meeting the complex needs of unaccompanied homeless youth (UHY) have been developed. One intervention, called Starting Right, Now (SRN), provides unaccompanied homeless adolescents with a broad range of home-, school-, and community-based services and supports to meet the unique needs of each individual. Previous qualitative research has supported the effectiveness of SRN on student outcomes; there has not yet been an examination of the program using quantitative methods. Thus, the current study investigated the impact of Starting Right, Now on students’ well-being through the examination of longitudinal data collected over a 12-month period. Specifically, changes in students’ life satisfaction, hope, and use of coping strategies at three time points were examined. A dataset including ten unique participants was analyzed using the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test to evaluate whether statistically significant changes in participants’ (1) life satisfaction, (2) hope agency, (3) hope pathways, (4) maladaptive coping strategies, and (5) adaptive coping strategies occurred between baseline (Time 1), six months of participation (Time 2), and twelve months of participation (Time 3; available for a subset of the sample). Results indicated a statistically significant increase in life satisfaction, hope agency, and hope pathways after six months of participation in SRN. There were no additional statistically significant changes in life satisfaction, hope agency, or hope pathways after one year of participation, and there were no statistically significant changes in adaptive coping or maladaptive coping at any time point. Findings from the current study support the implementation and future expansion of the SRN model in order to positively impact life satisfaction and hope among UHY.
Scholar Commons Citation
Esposito, Emily E., "A Longitudinal Analysis of the Effect of the Starting Right, Now Program on Unaccompanied Homeless Adolescents' Well-Being" (2018). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/7283
