Graduation Year

2005

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Ph.D.

Degree Granting Department

Interdisciplinary Education

Major Professor

George Batsche, Ed.D.

Committee Member

H. Roy Kaplan, Ph.D.

Committee Member

John Ferron, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Kathy Bradley-Klug, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Richard Weinberg, Ph.D.

Keywords

Adolescent, Diversity acceptance, Social competence, Social responsibility, Community involvement, Anytown

Abstract

A nonequivalent control-group longitudinal design was used to examine the effects of a leadership and diversity awareness program on adolescents knowledge of discriminatory terms, acceptance of diversity, social competence, feelings of social responsibility, and community involvement. Adolescents who did and did not attend a leadership and diversity awareness program (Anytown) completed three analogous surveys in a 12-month period. Similarly, parents of adolescents who did and did not attend the program reported on their childs social competence and community involvement.

Adolescents who attended the program reported greater increases in their social competence, acceptance of diversity, feelings of social responsibility, and community involvement when compared to the control group. A comparison of females and males who attended the program revealed females scored higher than males in the areas of social competence, diversity acceptance, and social responsibility. Differences also were observed between the race/ethnic groups of program participants. The Hispanic/Latino and Nonwhite/Other race/ethnic groups reported higher diversity acceptance scores than the adolescents in the Black race/ethnic group. Additionally, parents of Anytown participants reported higher community involvement than parents of adolescents who had yet to attend the program. Discussion centers around the results and implications of these findings as well as the need to incorporate effective prejudice reduction strategies into diversity awareness programs.

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