No abstract

This article reports results of an integrated mind-body-spirit self-empowerment program for breast cancer survivors. Fifty-one women at various stages of breast cancer completed a series of eclectic lessons offered in a support group format. The program followed an integrated and cumulative lesson plan that progressively and systematically introduced multiple strategies for creating a balance among mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health. The program's goals were to enable participants to experience a reduction in distress, improve perceived quality of life, reach a deeper sense of meaning and purpose in life, and experience a greater sense of perceived wellness. Self-assessments were obtained on four well-documented measures relating to both pre- and postprogram participation. Differences in pre- and postscores showed statistically significant improvement and large estimated effect sizes on all four measures. Participants' written comments provide examples of the scope and benefits of the program.

The development and psychometric study of a measure of middle schoolers' perceptions of self-efficacy for physical, emotional, and academic behaviors appropriate to their age and developmental tasks are described. The validation of the Middle School Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (MISSE) included the adaptation of existing items and the generation of new ones. Items were subjected to judges' review by two expert panels and were tested with a large, geographically diverse sample of youngsters aged 11-14. Statistical analyses included factor analysis, internal consistency estimations, t tests, and analyses of variance for hypothesis testing related to construct validity. Results showed support for the expected factors and provided evidence of the validity of the MISSE.

The goal of this research was to implement and evaluate the Empower Youth Program-a holistic, peer support, and education intervention aimed at enabling middle school-aged adolescents to take greater control over their health through improving self-care resources (SCR). Empower is based on the Mind, Body, Spirit Program developed by Rodgers and colleagues and tested on adults. An experimental pretest and posttest design was used to compare outcomes for two randomly assigned groups. Forty middle school participants completed measures of academic and emotional SCR before and after the 9-week intervention. It was hypothesized that after controlling for strength of preexisting SCR, participants who received the intervention would show greater improvement in self-reports after completing the program compared to participants receiving usual school services. The differences in scores between groups are clinically meaningful but not statistically significant. Future studies with larger samples may be able to detect significant contributions of the Empower program.