Date of Award

2012

Degree Type

Dissertation

Department

Education and Human Services

First Advisor

Harper, Brian

Subject Headings

After-school programs -- Ohio -- Cleveland, Youth development -- Ohio -- Cleveland, Academic achievement -- Ohio -- Cleveland, Education, Secondary -- Ohio -- Cleveland, After-School, Youth, Academic Achievement, Achievement Related Behaviors, Open Doors Academy

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand the relationship between quality social support networks developed through high quality afterschool programming and achievement amongst middle school and high school aged youth. This study seeks to develop a deeper understanding of how quality after-school programs influence a youth's developmental assets, how quality after-school programs influence achievement-related behaviors amongst youth, and how quality after-school programs influence academic performance amongst youth. The study measured academic performance, as well as, hope, wellbeing, and engagement amongst youth who participate in high quality after-school programming, in comparison with youth who are not currently participating in after-school programming. Open Doors Academy, a highly recognized and supported after-school program model represents participants in the treatment group and students not currently enrolled in the program represent the comparison group. A total of 191 middle school and high school aged youth living in high-risk environments (aged 11 to 18 years) from Cleveland, Ohio were selected to complete the Gallup Student Poll (Lopez, Agrawal, & Calderon, 2010) and Developmental Assets Profile Survey (Search Institute, 2010a). In addition, quarterly grade cards were collected to assess academic performance. Three models were used to analyze the various research questions proposed in this study, including a general multivariate model, multiple regression, and single-factor analysis of variance. Findings from the study indicate a statistically significant difference amongst non- Open Doors Academy participants and Open Doors Academy participants in the context of hope, finding youth who participate in programming are more hopeful in comparison to their peers not engaged in programming and youth who engage in programming over a number of years are identified as more hopeful and thriving in comparison to those who participate for zero to one year. Findings also demonstrated a predictive relati

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