| Author: | Ng, Kwok-hung Kennedy |
| Title: | Studying the effectiveness of multiple family adventure-based intervention (M-FAI) on psychosocial development of local primary school students and the associating demographic factors, a quasi-experimental practice-based research |
| Advisors: | Lai, Man-kin Simon (APSS) |
| Degree: | DSW |
| Year: | 2020 |
| Subject: | Child development Family psychotherapy Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Department of Applied Social Sciences |
| Pages: | xii, 197 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | This practice research study testified the effectiveness of an intervention programme, namely Multiple Family Adventure-based Intervention (M-FAI), in promoting psychosocial development of children in their middle childhood. The M-FAI programme is an enriched version of an on-going local psychosocial development programme called Understanding Adolescent Project-Primary (UAPP) in Hong Kong since 90's. The M-FAI programme aims at integrating family-based intervention into the existing individual-based approach and is explored as an alternative way for effective intervention. The UAPP programme is sponsored by the Education Bureau of the Hong Kong SAR Government with millions of budgets every year and all Hong Kong primary schools are eligible to implement the programme for their primary 4 (i.e., grade 4) students. There was no experimental evaluation of the UAPP programme and no enrichment of the programme contents as well as practice implementations since 2003. There were limited research studies in providing empirical evidence of implementing psychosocial development programme in Hong Kong for children in their middle childhood. M-FAI is an integrative model of Multiple Family Therapy (MFT) and Adventure-based Counselling (ABC) for providing interventions for children in the middle childhood and their family members through the processes of multiple family groups by making use of well-planned adventure parent-child activities. This practice research study on M-FAI programme applied a mixed method approach employing mainly with quantitative data analysis and qualitative focus group interviews as supplementary and supporting evidence for understanding the in-depth perceptions from the stakeholders. Quasi-experimental design under the quantitative approach is the preferred study design of the practice research study for investigating the effectiveness of the M-FAI programmes. Effectiveness of M-FAI programme was evaluated by comparing differences in psychosocial outcomes of participants before and after the programmes with participants of the UAPP programme and the non-participants. The between-subject effect of groups and within-subject effect of time were analysed using mixed ANOVA analysis. Parental and family factors of psychosocial outcomes were identified through multiple regression analysis for the understanding of family and parental influences on psychosocial development of children in middle childhood. A self-report questionnaire using standardised scales for measuring psychosocial outcomes was developed by the working team of the M-FAI and UAPP programmes by referring from other similar psychosocial development programmes. Focus group interviews were employed for qualitative data collection in order to enrich the understanding of stakeholders' in-depth perceptions and meanings of programme effectiveness, implementation strategies and practice wisdoms. Findings from the qualitative data would supplement and provide in-depth understanding of the quantitative results on programme effectiveness and familial influences on psychosocial outcomes among the participants. The M-FAI and UAPP participants were screened out by the official screening tool of the UAPP programme, namely the Hong Kong Student Information Form-Student (HKSIFS) as requested by the Education Bureau for identifying students' urgency for psychosocial development intervention. There were five schools joining the M-FAI practice research study and the schools were of lower academic achievement, higher percentage of low-income families, and located in government subsidised public housing area. These five schools were randomly assigned for joining the UAPP or M-FAI programmes on a school basis. There were 316 participants (n=61 in M-FAI, n=53 in UAPP, and n=202 in the control group) providing complete and valid responses for analyses. The results identified that the M-FAI programme was effective for promoting participants' psychosocial development of academic aspirations and perceiving supportive relationships with family members, peers, and significant others. The multiple regression analyses implied that father education levels associated with children's sense of belongings to school, children's family satisfaction, and perceived overall family and social support. The analyses also indicated that mothers' education levels related to children's mental health status. These findings propose the importance of family influences on psychosocial development outcomes among children in the middle childhood and those factors in psychosocial intervention programmes. The M-FAI programme not only showed its effectiveness on participants' psychosocial outcomes, but also improved programme participation of parents significantly. The results indicated that parents' attendance rate was 84% in the M-FAI programmes but only 16.7% in the UAPP programmes. The qualitative data from focus group interviews identified that M-FAI programme was effective for promoting psychosocial development of children in the middle childhood. The qualitative data showing M-FAI programme was more effective than the on-going UAPP programme from stakeholders. The qualitative interviews proposed the effective implementation strategies and practice wisdoms for children psychosocial development in the middle childhood with family-based interventions. Overall, both quantitative and qualitative data from M-FAI study indicated positive impact and effectiveness on children psychosocial development in the middle childhood. Implementation strategies and practice wisdoms were identified for effective psychosocial development of children in the middle childhood with both individual-based and family-based approaches in Hong Kong. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5576.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 1.88 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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