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Effects of Alternative Street School on Youth Involved in Prostitution

NCJ Number
136716
Journal
Journal of Adolescent Health Volume: 12 Issue: 7 Dated: special issue (November 1991) Pages: 549-554
Author(s)
K V Wurzbacher; E D Evans; E J Moore
Date Published
1991
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Prostitution-involved adolescents assigned themselves to one of three groups (school attenders of alternative street school, unable to attend, or school refusers) in this study designed to evaluate the alternative school experience.
Abstract
Subjects included 114 prostitution-involved youth, 58 females and 56 males, who ranged in age from 13 to 19 years and who came to a multiservice agency for street youth in Seattle, Washington, during 1987 and 1988. The alternative school experience involved a nontraditional, drop-in, open enrollment classroom for street youth that provided basic academic skills learning, computer literacy development, a life skills curriculum, and General Equivalency Diploma preparation. Four dependent variables were examined: frequency or incidence of prostitution behavior, depressive symptomatology, self-esteem, and school attitude. Data were collected at intake and 50 days after intake for the following measures: Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Quality of School Life Scale, and self-reported weekly prostitution events. It was found that school attenders improved significantly on all measures, showing less depression, improved school sentiment, improved self-esteem, and reduced prostitution activity after less than 2 months of street school. Except for self-esteem, no significant changes on these dependent variables were observed for the other school groups (unable to attend and school refusers). Additional research is recommended to explore the long-term impact of alternative street school programs. 22 references, 1 table, and 4 figures