An investigation of the psychosocial and behavior changes experienced by children participating in the Gallery 37 Connections art program.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

While researchers (Catterall, 2002) acknowledge the difficulty in addressing the question of how learning in the arts transfers to learning and behavior in other academic areas and social contexts, the current educational climate of program accountability and financial cutbacks threatens many extracurricular art programs which provide positive subjective experiences for youth. The overall purpose of this dissertation research project was to describe and critically examine the experiences and possible changes in psychosocial and behavior functioning of a sample of students attending an after school fine arts program. This empirically based investigation took place at the Connections program created to offer inclusive art opportunities for students attending the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). A mixed methodological approach was used to address the research questions. The findings were drawn from a series of audio taped semi-structured interviews (n = 10) and a set of pre- and post-program surveys (n = 47). Survey items were adopted from the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC) Self-Report (Reynolds & Kamphaus, 1992). Based on the interview and survey findings, adults and children familiar with the Connections program rated the program favorably. The adults interviewed indicated that the program provided children with the opportunity for self-esteem development, social interactions and development, explorations of special interests, active learning engagement, creativity, and self-expression. Although the statistical analysis of the data set did not indicate that there were significant increases in psychosocial variables (i.e., self-esteem, self-reliance, school attitudes, and interpersonal relations) among the general sample, there is some evidence to suggest that certain groups that took part in the Connections program experienced statistically significant (p < .05) increases in the self-esteem measure after program participation. African-American students reported a significant increase (.04) in the area of self-esteem development after program participation. It should be noted that these findings are based on a very small sample. Special education students reported statistically significant increases in self-esteem after program participation when compared to their regular education peers. In addition, certain types of fine art experiences, such as learning to play a musical instrument, were found to be associated with increased reports of self-esteem among the participants.