Date Approved

9-30-1995

Embargo Period

9-13-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A. in Special Education

Department

Interdisciplinary and Inclusive Education

College

College of Education

Advisor

Kuder, S. Jay

Subject(s)

Learning disabled teenagers; Self-esteem in adolescence

Disciplines

Special Education and Teaching

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship of "Project Adventure," a program of physical activity, and self-esteem on learning disabled children and non-disabled children. The hypothesis was that the "Project Adventure" program would have a positive effect on the self-esteem of all the students, with an especially strong effect on the Learning Disabled students.

The subjects, 22 regular education students and 11 Learning Disabled students participated in a 9 week Project Adventure program in Oakcrest High School (Mays Landing, New Jersey). The Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory had been used for assessment as a pretest and a posttest. The quantitative scores were then compared by using a t-test for matched samples. In addition, the results were analyzed according to the four subscales of the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the differences.

The overall results of the pretest and the posttest of the two groups show no significant improvement nor a decrease in the students' self-esteem after experiencing the Project Adventure program. But the individual scores show that some students from both groups had a big improvement and some students from both groups had a big decrease.

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