Supporting positive development in early adolescence: A school-based intervention in Turkey. Issue 2 (2nd April 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kagitcibasi, Cigdem; Baydar, Nazli; Cemalcilar, Zeynep
• Is Part Of: Applied developmental science. Volume 24:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 170
• Page End: 192
• Publication Date: 2020-04-02
• Subjects: Child development -- Periodicals; Developmental psychology -- Periodicals; 305.231
• DOI: 10.1080/10888691.2018.1457962
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1088-8691

Abstract

ABSTRACT: We present a youth development intervention program and its evaluation. Deriving from the theories of agentic self and positive youth development, we adopted a holistic perspective that focused on social agency with growth mindset and self-efficacy conceptualized as its motivators. The intervention consisted of 14 weekly sessions with 508 sixth graders in four public schools in Turkey ( M age = 11.8, 49% female). A comparable group with 417 sixth graders in five public schools served as the control group ( M age = 11.7, 47% female). All students came from families of low to middle socioeconomic status. The evaluation had an experimental design with pretest, posttest (4 months after pretest), and follow-up (11 months after posttest) assessments. Findings indicated beneficial effects of the intervention on mindset, self-efficacy, and some indicators of social agency, some of which were sustained through the follow-up. In concordance with previous research on early adolescents, a general decline in positive adaptation was observed in the control group between pre- and posttests.