Sarah Kafka

Enhancing Resilience in Youth through a 10-Day Developmental Voyage.

The present study sought to examine the potential for resilience to be enhanced in a group of youth participating in a developmental voyage, and to identify the factors that contribute to increased resilience following the voyage. Two studies are reported. Study 1 revealed that voyage participants experienced increased resilience over the course of the voyage. Study 2 sought to replicate and extend these findings by assessing the extent to which increased resilience was maintained five months following the voyage and was associated with other psychosocial variables (i.e. self-esteem, social effectiveness, self-efficacy, belonging, social support and perceived weather). The findings revealed that increased resilience was maintained five months following the voyage. A regression revealed that the predictors explained 37% of the variance in increased resilience. Increased social effectiveness, self-efficacy and less positive perceptions of the weather were the only variables to make unique contributions.

Increased self-efficacy following a ten-day developmental voyage

Click on the link to view the letter. Journal of Child and Adolescent Mental Health 2010, 22(1): 63–65

Satisfying psychological needs on the high seas: explaining increases self-esteem following an Adventure Education Programme

ABSTRACT A number of recent studies have revealed that taking part in a sail-training-based Adventure Education Programme elevates youths’ self-esteem. Across two studies, we sought to examine the extent to which youths’ sense of belonging contributed to this increase in self-esteem. Study 1 revealed that participants who completed the voyage showed an increase in self-esteem from the first to the last day of the voyage. Partial correlation revealed that group belonging made a unique contribution to this change. Study 2 replicated Study 1 and, further, demonstrated that the relationship between group belonging and self-esteem was not a function of self-efficacy or group esteem. Such findings suggest that an important contributing factor to the benefits of sail-training interventions is their potential to satisfy psychological needs, in this case the need to belong.

Collective Identity and Intergroup Discrimination: Outcomes in Contexts that Emphasize and do not Emphasize Intergroup Relations

Several important theoretical perspectives in intergroup relations predict that there should be a positive association between various form of intergroup discrimination and collective identity. The empirical evidence for this assumption is however inconsistent and contradictory. Some studies show positive associations, some show negative associations and some show fail to find any associations. In an attempt to bring some clarity to this area, we conducted four studies that examined the relationship between collective identity and intergroup discrimination as a function of the intergroup context. Based on ideas derived from Self-Categorization Theory (SCT) it was predicted that the association between collective identity and intergroup discrimination would emerge in contexts where intergroup relations are emphasized. Using a between groups methodology, this prediction was tested in four independent studies. The results indicate a consistently positive relationship between the evaluative dimension of collective identity and various forms of intergroup discrimination. This association is found only in circumstances that specifically emphasize intergroup relations. This relationship held across increasingly negative forms of intergroup discrimination.