| The goal of this research was to provide an initial implementation of the Empower program, and to conduct a theory-based evaluation of the outcomes of the program. Empower is a holistic, peer education and support group intervention, aimed at enabling middle school-aged adolescents to take greater control over their health, and emotional well being, through the improvement in self-care resources. Empower is based on the Mind, Body, Spirit program developed by Denise Rodgers. Modeling and Role-Modeling provided the theoretical framework for this study.; A quasi-experimental pretest and posttest design was used to compare outcomes for two randomly assigned groups (Empower and Usual School Services [USS], vs. USS alone). Participants completed measures of academic and emotional self-care resources before, and immediately after the 9-week Empower intervention. The hypothesis tested in this study was: after controlling for strength of pre-existing self-care resources (SCR), participants who receive the Empower intervention will show greater improvement in self-reports of SCR after completing the program, than do participants receiving usual school services alone.; The sample consisted of 40 middle school-aged participants recruited from three different schools in the Southwestern United States. Data were collected through questionnaires, and were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and hierarchical multiple regression analysis (MRA). Instruments included the Children's Depression Inventory, the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children and the Academic Competence Evaluation Scales.; Results of the study showed that there are changes in SCR after participating in a 9-week Empower program that warrant further exploration. Although the results were not statistically significant in support of the a priori hypotheses, effect sizes suggest there are clinically meaningful differences in scores worth exploring with a larger sample. Specifically, the emotional self-care resource measure produced a small effect size. Post hoc analyses with MRA to explore possible gender and age influences on the outcome measures also produced effect sizes. A large effect size for gender on the anxiety measure, and large effect sizes for both gender and age on the academic measure were found. Results from this initial implementation will be serve as a guide for future theory development, research, and nursing practice. |
