Category: LDRS 591

Article

The relationship between the servant leadership behaviors of immediate supervisors and follower’s perceptions of being empowered in the context of small business.

Quality Criteria

1. The data were rigorously scored and prepared.

Rate

2=Good

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) Procedures to score the data in a consistent manner were used.

b) The researchers explained how data were prepared and checked the data for errors in the Result section.

c) The researchers did not provide the name of the quantitative statistical software program.

Quality Criteria

2. Good descriptive analyses were conducted.

Rate

1=Fair

Evidence and/or Reasoning

There is little information of descriptive statistics that could be identified.

Quality Criteria

3. Good hypothesis testing procedures were used.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) The Pearson Product-Moment correlation coefficient (r) was mainly used to test the relationship between two variables in this study.

b) The researchers objectively applied the five steps of hypothesis testing, such as setting the alpha level, collecting data, calculating the statistic and p values, and making decisions.

c) The alpha level was set at .05, but the researchers did not explain the reason.

d) The value of the statistic (r) and the p value were stated clearly.

Quality Criteria

4. The results are comprehensive.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) There is table in this study which reports the demographic characteristic (N) of the participants.

b) The results presented in the table contain the internal consistency of the instrument’s items and the identification of the six subscales found among the instrument’s items.

c) The results response to each of the study’s research questions.

d) The results are consistent with the overall research design.

Quality Criteria

5. The results include sufficient information.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) The researchers discuss the results of six different facets including the p value and the alpha level respectively. All the p values are less than the predetermined alpha level (.05), which indicate statistically significant results.

b) The effect size is specificaly presented in the Result section.

c) The information included in the table and the text is clear, consistent, and accurate.

Quality Criteria

6. The data analysis represents a good quantitative process.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

The data analysis is a objective and linear process, and the statistical results are found based on the gathered data.

Quality Criteria

7. The results provide a good explanation of the study’s purpose.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) It is clear how the reported results address the study’s research questions. The authors have interpreted the results and thorough analyses in different aspects.

b) All the statistical tests are clearly related to the study’s purpose.

Total Score = 18 (17-21 = High quality)

References

Plano-Clark, V., & Creswell, J. (2015). Understanding research: A consumer’s guide (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Van Winkle, B., Allen, S., DeVore, D., & Winston, B. (2014). The relationship between the servant leadership behaviors of immediate supervisors and follower’s perceptions of being empowered in the context of small business. Journal of Leadership Education, 13(3), 70-82.

Unit 5 Learning Activities

Article

The relationship between the servant leadership behaviors of immediate supervisors and follower’s perceptions of being empowered in the context of small business.

Quality Criteria

1. The sampling strategy is appropriate and justified.

Rate

2=Good

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) The study uses a non-probability sampling strategy for explicitly stating that a combined purposive and snowball sampling method is used.

b) The authors do not provide the reasons for using this sampling strategy. However, as a correlational design, the sampling strategy is implicitly understandable.

Quality Criteria

2. The sample size is appropriate and justified.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) As a correlational study, the participants are 116 individuals.

b) The sample size is much larger than the minimum size (30 participants) for a correlational design.

c) The authors have done their best to reduce the chance of sampling error by selecting as many possible participants as possible.

Quality Criteria

3. High quality instruments are used to gather data.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) The authors use two instruments to collect the data: the Essential Servant Leadership Behaviors (ESLB) and the Conditions of Work Effectiveness Questionnaire II (CWEQ II).

b) The ESLB instrument measuring the independent variable is the behavioral observation checklists type of instruments; The CWEQ II instrument measuring the dependent variable is the attitudinal measures type of instruments.

c) The ESLB instrument contains 10 clear questions and returns a Cronbach alpha of .90 indicating a high internal reliability; the CWEQ II instrument consists of 19 questions divided across six subscales and returns Cronbach alphas of .77, .67, .86, .77, .62, and .76 respectively, which indicate a strong internal reliability and consistency.

d) The authors include many citations to the literature indicating that the instruments are previously developed and used for research purposes.

Quality Criteria

4. The data are gathered using ethical quantitative procedures.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) The researchers obtain consent from participants because the individuals are willing to take the survey.

b) One group of the participants are adult business students recruited from a specific Californian college, and the permission is granted by the college.

Quality Criteria

5. The data are gathered using standardized quantitative procedures.

Rate

2=Good

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) The two instruments include closed-ended questions that have preset response options so that all participants use the same standard set of options for their responses (definitely no, no, neutral, yes, and definitely yes).

b) There is no information of the training raters to ensure that all participants completed the instruments in similar conditions.

Quality Criteria

6. The study has a high level of internal validity.

Rate

0=Poor

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) This study is not any type of experiments, it is a correlational one.

b) The procedures in this study is not to test whether the independent variable causes an effect in dependent variables

Quality Criteria

7. The study has a high level of external validity.

Rate

2=Good

Evidence and/or Reasoning

The researchers select a convenience sample, obtain a sample size that is large considering the type of design, use procedures to encourage as many participants as possible, and obtain a relatively high rate of response from participants (130 out of 156 response).

Total Score = 15 (11-16 = Adequate quality)

References

Plano-Clark, V., & Creswell, J. (2015). Understanding research: A consumer’s guide (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Van Winkle, B., Allen, S., DeVore, D., & Winston, B. (2014). The relationship between the servant leadership behaviors of immediate supervisors and follower’s perceptions of being empowered in the context of small business. Journal of Leadership Education, 13(3), 70-82.

https://create.twu.ca/ldrs591-sp18/unit-5-learning-activities/

Article

The relationship between the servant leadership behaviors of immediate supervisors and follower’s perceptions of being empowered in the context of small business.

Quality Criteria

1.The choice of the research design is appropriate and justified.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) The design perfectly fits the study’s intent of measuring the relationship between followers’ perceptions of the servant leadership of their immediate supervisor and the followers’ sense of empowerment in the context of small businesses.

b) The researchers focus on describing the relationship between two main variables (servant leadership behaviors of an immediate supervisor, perceived follower empowerment) in a correlational design.

c) The literature presented by the authors is more prescriptive and acts as strong convincing explanation for why the correlational design is provided.

Quality Criteria

2. Good quantitative procedures are used to select and assign participants.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

The way that the participants are recruited totally fits the correlational design:

a) The authors recruit the participants who are conveniently available.

b) The participants are willing to take the survey or willing to take part in the study.

Quality Criteria

3. Good quantitative data collection procedures are used.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) This study is approved by the institutional review board prior for the data collection.

b) The authors make a survey, and the survey link is sent to possible participants. The participants send the survey link to possible participants as well. Therefore, the study provides a wide range of responses for the variables of interest.

c) The authors receive 130 surveys, and 116 are usable.

d) There is no manipulating the experiences of the participants in this study.

Quality Criteria

4. Good quantitative data analysis procedures are used.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) The quantitative survey used in this study contains two instruments: the Essential Servant Leadership Behaviors (ESLB) and the Conditions of Work Effectiveness Questionnaire II (CWEQ II).

b) The ESLB measures the independent variable, and the CWEQ II measures the dependent variable.

c) The Pearson Product-Moment (PPM) correlation coefficient is used to measure the relationship between the two variables and each subscale.

d) The authors use a table to present the correlation of each subscale with servant leadership behaviors. The table also displays information about the relationships among variables.

Quality Criteria

5. Good quantitative results and conclusions are reported.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) Claims made are appropriate for the design.

b) The authors claim that the causality cannot be assumed.

c) The study examines that the servant leadership behaviors have a strong correlation with followers’ perceptions that they are empowered.

Quality Criteria

6. The study used a rigorous research design.

Rate

2=Good

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) All elements of the study from problem to purpose to methods to results to conclusions fit the correlational design in a logical way.

b) The Data Collection section is not very concise and a little disordered. The authors have not specified the difference between possible participants and participants.

Quality Criteria

7. The use of the quantitative research design addressed the study’s purpose

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) The results and conclusions from the research design provide a rigorous explanation of the relationship of the variables that fulfills the study’s intent.

b) The analysis of the limitations of this study also addresses the deficiency of the correlational research design.

Total Score = 20 (17-21 = High quality)

References

Plano-Clark, V., & Creswell, J. (2015). Understanding research: A consumer’s guide (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Van Winkle, B., Allen, S., DeVore, D., & Winston, B. (2014). The relationship between the servant leadership behaviors of immediate supervisors and follower’s perceptions of being empowered in the context of small business. Journal of Leadership Education, 13(3), 70-82.

Unit 5 Learning Activities

As a consumer of research reports, the most important things for me in the introduction section of a high-quality research report are identifying the five elements of the study’s Statement of the problem (Plano-Clark & Creswell, 2015) and  figuring out the study is a quantitative or a qualitative one.

Before this week, I was not aware that the topic, research problem, and the purpose statement were three different things in a study. Then I realized that the topic was a broad subject matter and an overall topic. Next, the authors would narrow the topic to a research problem (Plano-Clark & Creswell, 2015). I used to mix the two notions and did not consider them as two different things. The Figure 3.2 on page 91 in the textbook distinctively shows the consequence of identifying them and illustrates the meaning of them. I find these five elements significantly useful for understanding the intent of the researchers and getting a whole concept frame of the article in my mind.

I was very unfamiliar with the idea of either quantitative or qualitative study. I even made a mistake when doing the article review this week. The article was actually a quantitative one, while I thought it was a qualitative study because I found some keywords like “exploration” at the very start. After reading the chapter five, I noticed that the 10 hypotheses in the article were evidently the alternative type of the quantitative research hypothesis. Also, the variables were clearly defined in the introduction. I confess I still need to practice and to read more to identify the quantitative or qualitative studies. This is very crucial for making sure the understanding of the article is correct. Also, the figure 5.4 on page 179 clearly demonstrates the differences between the foundations of considering the two types.

Since I did not mention literature review in the previous paragraphs, and it is equally important of an article. Then, my question is: How would you organize the literature to form the theory or conceptual framework when conducting the study?

Reference

Plano-Clark, V., & Creswell, J. (2015). Understanding research: A consumer’s guide (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Unit 4 Learning Activities

Article

Servant leaders inspire servant followers: Antecedents and outcomes for employees and the organization

Quality Criteria

1.The study’s purpose is clearly specified.

Rate

2=Good

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) The purpose statement does not contain any signal words such as “The purpose of the study is…”. Instead, it uses “There remains a need to better understand….” followed by “more research design and more explorations of… are necessary…”.

b) The authors use four paragraphs with four main topics to interpret and support the purpose statement, and the independent variables, dependent variable, participants, framework, and intent.

Quality Criteria

2. The focus of the study is appropriate.

Rate

2=Good

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) The focus of the study is set of major variables (such as leader agreeableness, leader extraversion, the follower perceptions) that are clearly identified and worthy of study, especially the leader agreeableness and leader extraversion.

b) The variables are clearly grouped into five categories including independent variables (leader personality and values, individual-level servant leadership, store-level servant leadership), dependent variables (follower perceptions of servant leadership, follower needs and well-being, sales behaviour and store sales performance), and control variables (the mediating role of service climate).

c) I failed to find the relevant confounding variables in the study.

Quality Criteria

3. The overall intent of the study is appropriate.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) The overall intent of the study is to explain, describe, and predict the major variables.

b) The intent is illustrated in 10 precise hypotheses, and demonstrates what is to be learned about the identified variables

Quality Criteria

4. The participants and sites are appropriate.

Rate

2=Good

Evidence and/or Reasoning

The participants (followers, managers, leaders) and the sites (stores) are clearly identified and clearly fit the study’s intent. The precise information of the participants and sites are presented in the method part.

Quality Criteria

5. The purpose is narrowed through appropriate research questions and/or hypothesis.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

The authors present 10 hypotheses that clearly address the purpose of the study and exactly examine the relationships among the variables. The predictions about the relationships are demonstrated thoroughly based on the literature.

Quality Criteria

6. The purpose follows logically from the statement of the problem and literature review.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) Reasons for the study’s intent, theory, participants and sites are well argued after the purpose statement and precisely analyzed through four paragraphs with a figure which helps better understand the whole study’s intent.

b) The purpose and the hypotheses clearly build from extensive knowledge, address an important problem. They will make up the deficiencies of the existing knowledge because no study has investigated the personality of the servant leader.

Quality Criteria

7. The purpose is consistent with the study’s overall approach.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) The purpose and the hypotheses are narrow and specific.

b) The purpose and the hypotheses are based on high-quality literature and applicable theories.

c) The purpose and the hypotheses are clearly aimed at describing the relationships among variables, and at describing the differences between groups.

Total Score = 18 (17-21 = High quality)

Reference

Hunter, E. M., Neubert, M. J., Perry, S. J., Witt, L. A., Penny, L. M., & Weinberger, E. (2013). Servant leaders inspire servant followers: Antecedents and outcomes for employees and the organization. Leadership Quarterly, 24(2), 316-331.

Plano-Clark, V., & Creswell, J. (2015). Understanding research: A consumer’s guide (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Unit 4 Learning Activities

Article

Servant leaders inspire servant followers: Antecedents and outcomes for employees and the organization

Quality Criteria

1.The review includes the relevant literature.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

1. There are more than 19 literatures providing important background information of theories and analyses of servant leadership.
2. There are more than eight literatures presenting as supporting basis and models tested by other researchers. The authors depict a figure as the proposed model expanding upon and building on those models provided by other researchers.
3. At last, the authors illustrate eight literatures to introduce the deficiency of the servant leader personality.

Quality Criteria

2.The review examines sources that are recent and of high quality.

Rate

2=Good

Evidence and/or Reasoning

All of the literature in this journal article are of high quality, while I identified about nine literatures which were published before 2000. I believe some of them are necessary, for example, the definition of servant leadership is printed in Greenleaf’s seminal essay published in 1991. The Greenleaf’s essay is the most profound literature of servant leadership, and nearly every article about servant leadership will introduce this one.

Quality Criteria

3.The literature review is appropriately documented.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

1. All the citations are in correct format, both in-text references and end-of-text references.
2. All the citations are provided as sound support for the ideas.

Quality Criteria

4.The literature is thoughtfully synthesized.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

The authors create two subtitles to organize and synthesize the literature which are easy to grasp the theme and clear to identify a visual map

1. Servant leadership as a construct
2. Servant leadership and the cycle of service

Quality Criteria

5.The literature is critically examined.

Rate

2=Good

Evidence and/or Reasoning

The authors use most of the literature as sound basis for providing background and what have been done by other researchers step by step. And the authors expand their hypothesis on the deficiencies of the previous literature.

Quality Criteria

6.The study has a strong foundation in the literature.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

1. This study’s problem, purpose, approach and method are clearly and closely connected to the literature.
2. It is easy to find out how the literature is being used in the study to generate hypothesis and to provide a guiding theory.

Quality Criteria

7.The use of the literature fits the study’s overall research approach.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

As a quantitative study, the literature review provides direction by identifying the major variables and 10 hypothesis, supports the procedures, and is used to compare the results.

Total Score = 19 (17-21 = High quality)

Reference

Hunter, E. M., Neubert, M. J., Perry, S. J., Witt, L. A., Penny, L. M., & Weinberger, E. (2013). Servant leaders inspire servant followers: Antecedents and outcomes for employees and the organization. Leadership Quarterly, 24(2), 316-331.

Plano-Clark, V., & Creswell, J. (2015). Understanding research: A consumer’s guide (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

https://create.twu.ca/ldrs591-sp18/unit-4-learning-activities/

Article

Servant leaders inspire servant followers: Antecedents and outcomes for employees and the organization

Quality Criteria

1.The topic is interesting.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

1. The topic is introduced by a famous essay and how it has affected the real world. (the first two sentences)
2. The topic is depicted in a broad way.
3. I found the subject matter appealing because the authors provide two possible explanations for the main topic which pique my interest of keeping reading it.

Quality Criteria

2.There is a meaningful problem.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

1. The authors claim that the existing understanding of servant leadership is not enough.
2. Two problems are clearly addressed and stated explicitly.
3. The first problem is about “the need to better understand the scope and magnitude of the influence that servant leadership has on a range of multilevel outcomes and…”
4. The second problem is the need of more advanced research designs and more comprehensive explorations to help managers better apply servant leadership in the real world.

Quality Criteria

3.The importance of the problem is justified.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

Clear evidence of the importance of the problem is provided by plenty of references in the literature.

For example: Hofmann, 2002; Yammarino & Bass, 1991; Liden et al., 2008; Walumbwa et al., 2010a; and so on.

Quality Criteria

4.There are deficiencies in the knowledge about the problem.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

The authors have identified several deficiencies about the problem:

1. The results of Walumbwa et al. (2010a) were not clear, therefore, the results need to be extended;
2. The individual-level outcomes have received little attention by servant leadership scholars, therefore, need to be noticed;
3. The traits linked to servant leadership and its outcome remain unclear.
4. There is only one study has linked leader agreeableness to servant leader behaviors; no studies have investigated leader extraversion.

Quality Criteria

5.There are audiences who can benefit from the missing knowledge.

Rate

1=Fair

Evidence and/or Reasoning

The authors have not specifically mentioned in the end of the introduction, but in the second paragraph, scholars and managers are noted.

Quality Criteria

6.The passage clearly argues that the study is warranted.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

The topic, problem, justification, deficiencies, and audiences form a quite logical and convincing argument that the study is of important and needed.

Quality Criteria

7.The passage is well written.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

1. Concise enough, easy to follow.
2. The proposed model (Figure 1) are especially helpful and visualized.

Total Score = 19 (17-21 = High quality)

Reference

Hunter, E. M., Neubert, M. J., Perry, S. J., Witt, L. A., Penny, L. M., & Weinberger, E. (2013). Servant leaders inspire servant followers: Antecedents and outcomes for employees and the organization. Leadership Quarterly, 24(2), 316-331.

Plano-Clark, V., & Creswell, J. (2015). Understanding research: A consumer’s guide (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Unit 4 Learning Activities

Title

School-Based Intervention for Adolescents with Social Anxiety Disorder

Authors

Carrie Masia-Warner, Rachel G. Klein, Paige H. Fisher, Jose Alvir, and Anne M. Albano

New York University Child Study Center, NYU School of Medicine, New York

Heather C. Dent

Psychology Department, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado

Mary Guardino

Freedom from Fear, Staten Island, New York.

Author note

           Carrie Masia-Warner, Rachel G. Klein, Paige H. Fisher, Jose Alvir, and Anne M. Albano, New York University Child Study Centre, NYU School of Medicine; Heather C. Dent, Psychology Department, University of Denver; Mary Guardino, Freedom from Fear, Staten Island.

             This research was supported by the Anxiety Disorders Association of America and the Lowenstein Foundation. The authors thank Dr. Deborah Beidel for her consultation on this study, and Ben Adams, Joseph Capobianco, Nisha Patel, Eric Storch, and Jonathan Tobkes for their assistance in conducting the study.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Carrie Masia-Warner, NYU Child Study Centre, 215 Lexington Avenue, 13th floor, New York, 10016. E-mail: carrie.masia@med.nyu.edu.

The social anxiety disorder, which mostly happened in adolescences, was often neglected by teachers and parents for the symptoms mainly being quiet and compliant (Masia, Klein, Storch, & Corda, 2001; Pandey et al., 2003). The authors wanted to raise the awareness of identifying the social anxiety disorders of the adolescences, and conducted a research to see if the school-based intervention would effectively facilitate the treatment for socially anxious teenagers. In addition, previous research suggested that the treatment offered by the community centres or public health centres was resistant by the majority of adolescences (Weist, 1999; Weisz, Donenberg, Han, & Weiss, 1995), the authors wanted to find out if the school-based treatment worked better.

Methods

Participants

The participants were adolescences and their parents. The adolescences’ mean age was 14.8 years. The majority of them were female (74.3%), and their ethnicity was 82.9% Caucasian, 8.6% African American, 2.9% Asian American, 2.9% Latin American, and 2.9% other.

Sampling Procedures

At the beginning, 1521 participants were recruited. The participants were adolescences in grades 9 through 11 from two parochial high schools in New York City, and their parents who indicated social anxiety associated with impairment in functioning. Then, 475 students, who scored in the top 15% through self-rated instruments or were nominated by teachers, were selected for further screening. At last, 80 students and their parents agreed to participate.

Measures and Intervention

First of all, the participants were interviewed separately by the same evaluator using the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for DSM-IV: Parent and Child Versions (Silverman & Albano, 1996). In the meanwhile, students were diagnosed in various ways to find out if they were unqualified or not. Among those interviewed, 42 students met study criteria and rated the subject’s social anxiety at a subclinical level.

This study was conducted as a between-subjects design because the 42 adolescences were randomly assigned to different conditions including the SASS intervention and wait-list control condition. The SASS (Skills for Academic and Social Success) intervention was developed with the goal of adapting clinic-based procedures to be practical for delivery in high schools (Masia et al., 1999). This intervention included school group sessions, individual meetings, social events, peer assistants, parent meetings, teacher meetings, and booster sessions (Masia et al., 2005).

The participants were evaluated at pre-intervention and post-intervention. In addition, the wait-list control group was provided with treatment following post-assessment evaluations, while the SASS group participated in 9-month follow-up assessments. The pre-assessments, the dichotomous outcomes, and post-intervention comorbidity rates were compared between the two groups.

Results          

              In terms of pre-assessment comparisons, there was no obvious difference on any demographic variable between the two groups. On the other hand, the outcome measures of the two groups at pre-intervention and post-intervention appeared distinctively. Although the data of pre-intervention of the two groups did not have much difference, the data of post-intervention of the SASS group were lower than that of the control group. The results of the comorbidity comparison showed that there was no intervention group participant were diagnosed a new comorbidity, whereas 22.2% wait-listed participants did.

Conclusions

            This study has shown that the school-based intervention could effectively get access to the treatment of adolescents with social anxiety disorder. The treated students clearly got better during the treatment and still kept a healthy status 9 months later. Not only has this study extended opportunities available for clinicians, but also the school-based intervention could be adopted as a long-term approach to diagnosing the social anxiety disorder and facilitating the treatment.

Personal comments

            This study is closely related to my research question “How to effectively help the students in the elementary school (or post-secondary school) manage their anxiety disorders and academic performance at the same time”. I am very impressed by the sustainability of the school-based intervention, which is successfully proved in the study. Although the authors mainly analyze how to treat social anxiety disorders, they have successfully demonstrated that the school-based intervention is a more effective approach to help the students in the school manage their anxiety disorders. And I could resort to this intervention to find out if the other anxiety disorders can be treated equally well. In addition, this article has not mentioned any correlation between anxiety disorders and academic performance. Therefore, it still needs me to explore more and to discover other useful evidence or approach that can strongly support my research question.

References

Masia, C., Beidel, D. C., Albano, A. M., Rapee, R. M., Turner, S. M., Morris, T. L., et           al.(1999).   Skills for Academic and Social Success. Available from Carrie               Masia-Warner, PhD, New York University School of Medicine, Child Study             Centre, 215 Lexington Avenue, 13th floor, New York 10016.

Masia-Warner, C., Klein, R. G., Dent, H. C., Fisher, P. H., Alvir, J., Albano, A. M., &              Guardino,(2005). School-based intervention for adolescents with social                anxiety disorder: Results of a controlled study. Journal of abnormal child              psychology, 33(6), 707-722.

Masia, C. L., Klein, R. G., Storch, E., & Corda, B. (2001). School-based behavioral          treatment for social anxiety disorder in adolescents: Results of a pilot                    study. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent                             Psychiatry,  40, 780–786.

Pandey, P., Han, S., Fisher, P. H., Ferrante, D., Selinger, A., Cho, L.YJ., et al. (2003).            Barriers to referral of socially anxious students: Teacher perspectives of              why they go unnoticed. Poster presented at the 37th Annual Convention               of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Boston,                   MA.

Silverman, W. K., & Albano, A. M. (1996). Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule           for DSM-IV-Child and Parent Versions. San Antonio, TX: Graywind, A                      Division of the Psychological Corporation.

Weist, M. D. (1999). Challenges and opportunities in expanded school mental             health. Clinical Psychology Review, 19, 131–135.

Weisz, J. R., Donenberg, G. R., Han, S. S., & Weiss, B. (1995). Bridging the gap                 between laboratory and clinic in child and adolescent psychotherapy.                     Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 63, 688–701.

Unit 3 Learning Activities

Title:

School-Based Intervention for Adolescents with Social Anxiety Disorder

https://ezproxy.student.twu.ca:3734/article/10.1007/s10802-005-7649-z

Authors:

Carrie Masia-Warner, Rachel G. Klein, Paige H. Fisher, Jose Alvir, and Anne M. Albano

New York University Child Study Center, NYU School of Medicine, New York

Heather C. Dent

Psychology Department, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado

Mary Guardino

Freedom from Fear, Staten Island, New York.

Authors note:

Carrie Masia-Warner, Rachel G. Klein, Paige H. Fisher, Jose Alvir, and Anne M. Albano, New York University Child Study Center, NYU School of Medicine; Heather C. Dent, Psychology Department, University of Denver; Mary Guardino, Freedom from Fear, Staten Island.

This research was supported by the Anxiety Disorders Association of America and the Lowenstein Foundation. The authors thank Dr. Deborah Beidel for her consultation on this study, and Ben Adams, Joseph Capobianco, Nisha Patel, Eric Storch, and Jonathan Tobkes for their assistance in conducting the study.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to CarrieMasia-Warner, NYU Child Study Center, 215 Lexington Avenue, 13th floor, New York, 10016. E-mail: carrie.masia@med.nyu.edu.

Introduction

The social anxiety disorder, which mostly happens in adolescences, is always neglected by teachers and parents for the symptoms being quiet and compliant. Not only do the authors want to raise the awareness of identifying the anxiety disorders of the adolescence, but also they have conducted a research to see if the school-based intervention will effectively facilitate the treatment for socially anxious teenagers. Also, previous research has suggested that the treatment offered by the community centres or public health centres is resistant by the majority of adolescences (Weist, 1999; Weisz, Donenberg, Han, & Weiss, 1995), the authors want to find out if the school-based treatment works better.
Methods

Participants

The participants were adolescences and their parents. The adolescences’ mean age was 14.8 years. The majority of them were female (74.3%), and their ethnicity was: 82.9% Caucasian, 8.6% African American, 2.9% Asian American, 2.9% Latin American, and 2.9% other. About half of the participants had other disorders, the most common being generalized anxiety disorder (40%) and dysthymia (14.3%).

Sampling Procedures

At the beginning, 1521 participants were recruited, and they were adolescences in grades 9 through 11 from two parochial high schools in New York City and their parents who indicated social anxiety associated with impairment in functioning. The adolescences (74.3% females) rated through instruments and teacher nominations were identified highly possible to have the social anxiety disorder. Then, 475 students (31.2% of the adolescence) who scored in the top 15% through self-rated instruments or were nominated by teachers were selected for further screening. At last, 80 students and their parents agreed to participate (Masia et al., 2005).

Measures and Intervention

First of all, the authors used the interview session to describe the research and obtain informed consent from all participants. The parents and adolescences were interviewed separately by the same evaluator using the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for DSM-IV: Parent and Child Versions ( Silverman & Albano, 1996). Students were diagnosed in various ways to find out if they were unqualified or not. Among those interviewed, 42 students met study criteria and rated the subject’s social anxiety at a subclinical level.

This study was conducted as a between-subjects design because the 42 adolescences were randomly assigned to different conditions including the SASS intervention, Skills for Academic and Social Success (SASS; Masia et al., 1999), and wait-list control condition. The SASS intervention was developed with the goal of adapting clinic-based procedures to be practical for delivery in high schools (SASS; Masia et al., 1999). It includes school group sessions, individual meetings, social events, peer assistants, parent meetings, teacher meetings, and booster sessions (Masia et al., 2005).

The participants were evaluated at pre-intervention and post-intervention. The wait-list control group was provided with treatment following post-assessment evaluations, while the SASS group participated in 9-month follow-up assessments. The pre-assessments including three sets of analyses, the dichotomous outcomes (the SPDSCF-Change and ADIS diagnosis), and post-intervention comorbidity rates were compared between the two groups (Masia et al., 2005).

Results

In terms of pretreatment comparisons, there is no obvious difference on any demographic variable between the two groups. The outcome measures of the two groups at pre-intervention and post-intervention appeared distinctively. Although the data of pre-intervention of the two groups did not have much difference, the data of post-intervention of the SASS group were significantly lower than that of the control group. The results of the comorbidity comparison showed that there was no intervention group participant were diagnosed a new comorbidity, whereas 22.2% wait-listed participants did (Masia et al., 2005).

Conclusions

This study has evidently shown that the school-based intervention plays a meaningful way of treating adolescents with social anxiety disorder. The treated students clearly got better during the treatment and still kept a healthy status 9 months later. Not only has this study extended opportunities available for clinicians, but also the school-based intervention could be adopted as a long-term approach to diagnosing the social anxiety disorder and facilitating the effective treatment (Masia et al., 2005). The sustainability of the school-based intervention, which is mainly demonstrated and successfully proved in the study, is the most significant part to me.

Personal comments

This study is closely related to my research question “How to effectively help the students in the elementary school (or post-secondary school) manage their anxiety disorders and academic performance at the same time”. Although this study mainly talks about the social anxiety disorders, it does prove that one kind of anxiety disorders can be effectively treated by school-based intervention. In another word, it has provided a useful way to help the students in the school manage their social anxiety disorders. And I could resort to this intervention to find out if the other anxiety disorders can be treated equally well. In addition, this article has not mentioned any correlation between anxiety disorders and academic performance. Therefore, it still needs me to explore more and to discover other useful evidence or approach that can strongly support my research question.

References

Masia, C., Beidel, D. C., Albano, A. M., Rapee, R. M., Turner, S. M., Morris, T. L., et al. (1999). Skills for Academic and Social Success. Available from Carrie Masia-Warner, PhD, New York University School of Medicine, Child Study Center, 215 Lexington Avenue, 13th floor, New York 10016.

Masia-Warner, C., Klein, R. G., Dent, H. C., Fisher, P. H., Alvir, J., Albano, A. M., & Guardino, M. (2005). School-based intervention for adolescents with social anxiety disorder: Results of a controlled study. Journal of abnormal child psychology, 33(6), 707-722.

Silverman,W. K., & Albano, A. M. (1996). Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for DSM-IV-Child and Parent Versions. San Antonio, TX:Graywind, A Division of the Psychological Corporation.

Weist, M. D. (1999). Challenges and opportunities in expanded school mental health. Clinical Psychology Review, 19, 131–135.

Weisz, J. R., Donenberg, G. R., Han, S. S., & Weiss, B. (1995). Bridging the gap between laboratory and clinic in child and adolescent psychotherapy. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 63, 688–701.

https://create.twu.ca/ldrs591-sp18/unit-3-learning-activities/