PhD, Clinical Psychology, Wichita State University, 2011
Westfield State College
McNair Scholar, 2004
Major: Psychology
Mentor: Dr. Carolyn Mebert, Department of Psychology
Research Topic: Adolescents & Community Intervention: What Can Be Done and What Is Being Done?
Adolescents & Community Intervention: What Can Be Done and What Is Being Done?
Adolescents from communities around the world deal with a number of factors that contribute to their upbringing. At this very crucial stage of development, adolescents tend to experiment with drugs and sexual behaviors, which can lead to future deviant behaviors. Previous research indicates that some adolescents face poverty, crime, drugs, low education, low-economic status, violent behaviors and more. These are just a few of the risk factors that adolescents have to overcome and the struggle is said to be doubled for the adolescents living in urban communities (Guerra et al., 1995). African American Males have been found to be the most risk. This is reflected in the fact that the number of African American Males in jail outnumbers these same males in higher educational settings. Recent research has shown that positive role models and mentoring can enhance adolescents' attitude towards achievement (Brooks et al., 2002). The question raised is what can a community intervention program do to decrease some of the constant struggles that these young adults have to go through? The goal of the present project is to identify the characteristics of effective community intervention program so that a more comprehensive intervention program can be developed.
