Further report on experimental evaluation of mental hygiene techniques in school and community.

Abstract

A further study on experimental evaluation of controlled mental hygiene workshops in school and community is reported. This controlled study was made on mental health workshop groups of teachers and parents and controlled by other groups of teachers and parents from the same and other communities. These studies were all made in Westchester County, New York State. Psychological test instruments were used before and after the mental health workshops for both the experimental and control groups, all groups being tested simultaneously. The scoring and statistical analysis of over 110,000 test items lead to the following conclusions: 1. The experimental groups as a whole showed more changes in a positive direction than did the control groups. 2. There was a significant trend for parents in the experimental groups to show greater over-all changes than did the teachers as compared with changes in the control groups. 3. In spite of the differences in content, approach, and instructions to the experimental groups, there were no statistically significant differences between changes produced in the groups by a psychiatrist and a psychologist. 4. The most striking positive changes were obtained on the Parental Survey Scale for all the experimental groups, with 2 groups showing a conclusive change toward a more liberal conception of parent-child relationships and 1 a trend toward change(6). 5. Telling a control group that it is being used as a control seems to raise subscale scores on the Minnesota. Whether this would hold in general or whether a community factor is operating is uncertain. 6. There were no changes in Morale for any of the groups, suggesting that the morale "climate" at the time of this experiment is better than it was at the time of previous experiment or that community differences were being reflected. 7. One control group showed a significant change in parental attitudes. It is suggested that this might have resulted from the stimulus value of the Scale. 8. It is probable that the workshop is better suited for those who volunteer to participate rather than for an unselected random population. 9. It seems advisable to stress attitude evaluation in future studies rather than "adjustment." This might make it possible to administer a shorter test battery and to accomplish a more detailed item analysis of the responses.