Go Grrrls

OVERVIEW

The Go Grrrls intervention is a twelve session curriculum for adolescent girls designed to promote social competence through an interactive approach that focuses on mastering six developmental tasks. It aims to increase girls’ body image, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and assertiveness. An evaluation of the intervention found that it had a positive impact on body image, assertiveness, attractiveness attitudes, self-efficacy, and self-liking.

 

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

 

Target population: Early adolescent girls

 

The Go Grrls intervention is composed of six content areas based the tasks necessary for girls’ healthy psychosocial development in modern society.  The content areas are being a girl in today’s society, establishing a positive self-image, establishing independence, making and keeping friends, learning to obtain help and find access to resources, and planning for the future. The intervention involves didactic instruction, class discussion, group exercises, worksheets, group roleplays, and journal assignments. The curriculum was delivered to groups of eight to ten participants by two female group leaders. Group leaders were masters of social work or graduate psychology students and had experience with adolescents, group leader skills, and an interest in the program. The group leaders received training on how to administer the curriculum. There were twelve weekly sessions, each about one hour in length, with two sessions devoted to each task.

 

EVALUATION OF PROGRAM

Evaluated population: 118 seventh grade girls from a public middle school in a semi-urban city in Arizona participated. Analyses are based on 113 to 116 cases. (Although the evaluation excludes one participant who dropped out of the program and one who attended fewer than 75 percent of the sessions, attrition is so minimal that the results should be valid.)

 

Approach: Participants were randomly assigned to the intervention or a no-treatment control condition. Data were collected at pre-test and post-test from questionnaires on body image, assertiveness, peer self-esteem, attitude toward attractiveness, self-efficacy, self-liking, hopelessness, and help endorsements.

 

Results: Positive albeit small impacts were found at post-test for body image, assertiveness, attractiveness attitudes, self-efficacy, and self-liking. There was a marginally significant impact on hopelessness and help endorsements, and no impact on peer self-esteem.

 

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

 

Website: http://www.public.asu.edu/~lecroy/gogrrrls/body.htm

 

The curriculum guide ($30) is available for purchase at: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393703479/o/qid=990127094/sr=8-4/ref=aps_sr_b_2_1/103-9966528-5963014

 

The curriculum workbook ($10) is available for purchase at:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393703487/qid=990127346/103-9966528-5963014

 

References

LeCroy, C.W. (2004). Experimental evaluation of “Go Grrrls” preventive intervention for adolescent girls. The Journal of Primary Prevention, 25, 457-473.

 

KEYWORDS: Adolescents (12-17), Middle School, Female Only, Manual, Cost, Self-Esteem/Self-Concept, Other Social/Emotional Health

 

Program information last updated 10/28/10

 

 

 

 

		© Child Trends 2004