THE DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTIVENESS OF A CLIENT-CENTERED VERSUS A BEHAVIORAL COUNSELING INTERVENTION WITH "HIGH RISK" STUDENTS
Abstract
The problem of the attitudes and the behavior of the "high risk" student remains significant and unresolved. Wide-spread retention programs have been instituted and reported. A fewer number of formal scientific studies have been conducted and published. Their conclusions are conflicting and tentative. Their recommendations are for further attempts and continued exploration. This study investigated the differential effectiveness of two well-known approaches to the problem, client-centered counseling and behavioral counseling. Each method, in theory and in practice, has aspects that could affect change in the behavior and in the attitudes of the "high risk" student, as defined in this study. In addition, it included two other popular "at risk" interventions--Special Attention and Work Study Program. It had as its outcomes the improvement of: self-concept, attitudes toward school, grade point average, attendance, behavior ratings. In order to assess the effectiveness of these counseling methods, "high risk" students were randomly placed into an experimental or control group. A pretest-posttest control group design was employed. It can be seen in the results that the behavioral counseling group and the Co-op/Work Internship group improved significantly over the client-centered counseling group in terms of grade point average. Moreover, the behavioral counseling group and the Special Attention group improved significantly in comparison to the client-centered counseling group with reference to behavior ratings. In terms of the other outcomes--self-concept, attitudes toward school, and attendance--there was no significant difference among the groups after treatment. Lastly, in a five month follow-up, the behavioral counseling group and the Co-op/Work Internship group retained their statistical improvement over the client-centered counseling group concerning grade point average. In addition, the same two groups attained statistical differences over the client-centered counseling group in terms of improved attendance. However, this time there was no statistical significance between the groups in reference to the behavior ratings.
Subject Area
Academic guidance counseling
Recommended Citation
COMRAS, DONALD MARC, "THE DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTIVENESS OF A CLIENT-CENTERED VERSUS A BEHAVIORAL COUNSELING INTERVENTION WITH "HIGH RISK" STUDENTS" (1985). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI8600078.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI8600078
