Menzies School of Health Research, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT, Australia.
School of Health and Biomedical Sciences, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Front Public Health. 2020 Nov 17;8:552878. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.552878. eCollection 2020.
Skills for Life (SFL) is a social-emotional curriculum for Indigenous middle school students that was co-developed with educators and community members in a remote community of northern Australia. This preliminary study aimed to test the feasibility of processes and methods of data-gathering, the reliability of youth self-report measures, and to identify the direction of effects for an evaluation of a longer-term pilot of the curriculum. Indigenous Students in years 7-9 of a remote school participated in SFL over 2 years. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), Kessler 6 (K6), and a purpose-designed Connected Self Scale (CSS) were administered to 63 students pre- and post-program. Only the K6, Prosocial behavior (SDQ), and two CSS subscales showed sufficient internal consistency for analysis. Change was positive but non-significant for SDQ and CSS. There was evidence of a dosage effect: students receiving the intervention over 2 years showed greater reduction in psychological distress than other students. There was no evidence of iatrogenic effects. The feasibility pilot is a critically important phase in the development of evaluation design and cjhoice of evaluation measures for challenging remote settings. This study found that evaluation of SFL with culturally and linguistically distinct Indigenous middle school students using self-report measures is feasible. However, the SDQ may not be suitable for this project. High levels of psychological distress suggest the need to investigate sources of life stress and potential supports for adolescent resilience in this context. This preliminary pilot aimed to trial methods and measures for evaluation of a social-emotional curriculum developed specifically for remote Australian Indigenous students who are at risk of poor psychosocial outcomes. No studies have examined the appropriateness of standardized self-report measures for evaluation of SEL with this student population in remote school settings.
生活技能（SFL）是一门针对土著中学生的社会情感课程，由澳大利亚北部偏远社区的教育工作者和社区成员共同开发。本初步研究旨在测试数据收集过程和方法的可行性、青少年自我报告测量的可靠性，并确定对课程长期试点评估的效果方向。
一所偏远学校的 7-9 年级土著学生参加了为期两年的 SFL。在计划之前和之后，向 63 名学生施测了长处和困难问卷（SDQ）、凯斯勒 6（K6）和专门设计的连接自我量表（CSS）。仅 K6、亲社会行为（SDQ）和两个 CSS 子量表表现出足够的内部一致性，适合分析。SDQ 和 CSS 的变化呈阳性但不显著。有证据表明存在剂量效应：接受两年干预的学生比其他学生表现出更大的心理困扰减少。没有证据表明存在治疗性影响。
可行性试点是在具有挑战性的偏远环境中制定评估设计和选择评估措施的发展过程中的一个至关重要的阶段。本研究发现，使用自我报告测量方法对具有文化和语言独特性的土著中学生进行 SFL 的评估是可行的。然而，SDQ 可能不适合这个项目。高水平的心理困扰表明需要在这种情况下调查生活压力的来源和对青少年韧性的潜在支持。这个初步试点旨在试用专门为面临不良心理社会结果风险的澳大利亚偏远地区土著学生开发的社会情感课程的评估方法和措施。没有研究检验标准化自我报告措施在偏远学校环境中对 SEL 进行评估的适当性。
