Evaluating Sensitivity Training for Teen-Agers

Abstract

At a meeting of some 43 trained staff leaders of the teenagers' sensitivity training program for the YMCA, psychologist lack Gibb, who was consultant for the program, commented: "There's no book that says all the things that kids feel have happened, or describes how tremendously life has changed." Throughout the Young Men's Christian Associations in the United States, more than 7,000 teen-agers have participated in sensitivity training experiences, ranging from three-day weekends to:o-day laboratories. Some form of evaluation is usually built in as part of the program design. One formal study evaluating the "Self-Perceived Gains" of teen-agers was made in 1968 (643 were sent questionnaires, of whom 420 responded). A follow-up to the same subjects six months later largely corroborated the first overwhelmingly positive findings. Many other interactional programs using sensitivity training with teen-agers have been introduced, and the results are sufficiently positive in the YMCA to warrant wider exploration with this type of program for young people.