Matching Items (3)
Description
Time adolescents spend in organized or informal skill based activities after school is associated with a variety of positive developmental outcomes. Little is known about how siblings might shape adolescents' motivation to participate in after-school activities. The current study applied the expectancy value model and ecological theory to understand if sibling behaviors were related to adolescents' after-school activities for 34 Mexican origin families. Qualitative and quantitative results suggested siblings engaged in five promoting behaviors (i.e., support, provider of information, role modeling, comparison, co-participation) and three inhibiting behaviors (i.e., babysitting, transportation, and negativity) towards adolescent activity participation. Furthermore, sibling behaviors differed by adolescent characteristics (i.e., cultural orientation, familism, and neighborhood) and sibling characteristics (i.e., gender, age). The results provide evidence of the various promoting and inhibiting socialization behaviors sibling might use to influence adolescents' activity motivation.
ContributorsPrice, Chara Dale (Author) / Simpkins, Sandra (Thesis advisor) / Updegraff, Kimberly (Committee member) / Menjivar, Cecilia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Many students spend a significant portion of their college life outside of the classroom, yet very little is known about the learning they experience as a result of their interactions outside of the classroom. Intentional out-of-class educational experiences offer educators a powerful window into not only understanding the college student experience, but gaining insight into what students are learning that has meaning for them. This research study employed a qualitative approach to examine how students make meaning of their intentional out-of-class educational experiences at a small, Catholic, liberal arts college. Four recent graduates of the college were interviewed on two separate occasions to garner a broad picture of what they learned beyond their classrooms. All four participants were members of the college's honor society whose membership criteria included not only excellence in the classroom, but excellence in the out-of-class arena as well. The students represented athletic teams, honor societies, service societies and clubs in their out-of-class educational experiences. While the participants discussed an array of outcomes as a result of their out-of-class educational experiences, each participant identified specific events that lead them to make new or revised meaning from their internal and external understandings of their world. Labeled as turning points, this research study found that there was a powerful interaction when combining out-of-class educational experiences with the opportunity to cognitively reflect on what each student was experiencing both in understanding how they viewed themselves, as well as the world around them. Consequently, student affairs practitioners, at least in this campus setting, can routinely discover cognitive gains of students implementing opportunities for college students to reflect on out-of-class educational experiences.
ContributorsIsett, Kerry Lynn (Author) / Appleton, Nicholas (Thesis advisor) / Ewing, Kris (Committee member) / Kline, Karen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
It is commonly accepted that undergraduate degree attainment rates must improve if postsecondary educational institutions are to meet macroeconomic demands. Involvement in co-curricular activities, such as student clubs and organizations, has been shown to increase students' satisfaction with their college experience and the rates by which they might persist. Yet, strategies that college administrators, faculties, and peer leaders may employ to effectively promote co-curricular engagement opportunities to students are not well developed. In turn, I created the Sky Leaders program, a retention-focused intervention designed to promote commuter student involvement in academically-purposeful activities via faculty- and peer-lead mentoring experiences. Working from an interpretivist research paradigm, this quasi-experimental mixed methods action research study was intended to measure the intervention's impact on participants' re-enrollment and reported engagement rates, as well as the effectiveness of its conceptual and logistical aspects. I used enrollment, survey, interview, observation, and focus group data collection instruments to accommodate an integrated data procurement process, which allowed for the consideration of several perspectives related to the same research questions. I analyzed all of the quantitative data captured from the enrollment and survey instruments using descriptive and inferential statistics to explore statistically and practically significant differences between participant groups. As a result, I identified one significant finding that had a perceived positive effect. Expressly, I found the difference between treatment and control participants' reported levels of engagement within co-curricular activities to be statistically and practically significant. Additionally, consistent with Glaser and Strauss' grounded theory approach, I employed open, axial, and selective coding procedures to analyze all of the qualitative data obtained via open-ended survey items, as well as interview, observation, and focus group instruments. After I reviewed and examined the qualitative data corpus, I constructed six themes reflective of the participants' programmatic experiences as well as conceptual and logistical features of the intervention. In doing so, I found that faculty, staff, and peer leaders may efficaciously serve in specific mentoring roles to promote co-curricular engagement opportunities and advance students' institutional academic and social integration, thereby effectively curbing their potential college departure decisions, which often arise out of mal-integrative experiences.
ContributorsSebold, Brent (Author) / Beardsley, Audrey (Thesis advisor) / Serafini, Frank (Committee member) / Wharton, Christopher (Christopher Mack), 1977- (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011