Improving participant retention rates at the Seaborne Challenge Corps of Texas through the use of a stress hardiness assessment as a complement to the applicant screening process /
In 2001, the executive director of the Texas Seaborne Challenge Corps established the goal of improving the program's 30-day participant retention rate. This study was conducted in an effort to achieve that goal by developing a means to predict the persistence of individual Seaborne applicants...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
[Place of publication not identified] :
[publisher not identified] ;
2003.
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://proxy.library.tamu.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=765162351&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=2945&RQT=309&VName=PQD |
| Summary: | In 2001, the executive director of the Texas Seaborne Challenge Corps established the goal of improving the program's 30-day participant retention rate. This study was conducted in an effort to achieve that goal by developing a means to predict the persistence of individual Seaborne applicants before they were accepted into the program. Commonly accepted measures of the interrelated psychological factors of challenge, control, and commitment (the stress hardiness construct) were used to investigate the psychological functioning of 626 Seaborne Challenge Corps Members who were enrolled in the program during the years 2000-2002. The study was based on existing Behavior Assessment System for Children Self Report of Personality (BASC SRP) psychological data that had been gathered by Seaborne Challenge Corps staff as part of the routine counseling process. A Statistical Product and Service Solution (SPSS) package database was constructed using the BASC SRP data for the 626 Seaborne Challenge Corps Members who participated in the program between the years 2000-2002. Statistical analysis consisted of demographics, correlational analysis, and t-test of means. This study did not find a statistically significant relationship between the stress hardiness construct and the persistence of program participants. The failure to establish such a relationship may be the result of limitations in the BASC SRP instrument, and not a failure of the construct. However, the use of a stress hardiness assessment as a predictive screening tool cannot be recommended until research with a different instrument can be conducted. Five psychological factors: interpersonal relationships (females), depression (males), attitude to teachers (males), school maladjustment (males), and personal adjustment (males) possess statistically significant correlations with program persistence. If the validity of these correlations can be confirmed, it may be possible to substantially improve participant persistence by adding an intervention program to the Seaborne Challenge Corps curriculum. The ancillary findings of this study discovered that the stress hardiness construct significantly correlates with the SAD (stress, anxiety, and depression) Triad, locus of control significantly correlates with depression, and stress significantly correlates with sense of inadequacy for all Seaborne Challenge Corps Members. |
|---|---|
| Item Description: | Vita. "Major Subject: Educational Human Resource Development". |
| Physical Description: | xii, 183 leaves : illustrations ; 28 cm. Issued also on microfiche from University Microfilm Inc. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-92). |