Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

1988

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Tucker, Donald

Abstract

Student discipline problems within the American education system are increasing at an alarming rate. The lack of an effective method for lowering the frequency of disruptive behavior in the public middle schools suggested the problem to be studied. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of an in-place middle school peer counseling program on the rate of suspensions of a large comprehensive middle school in South Florida. The study involved ninety-one students randomly selected from all sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students suspended during the 1986-87 school year. A change of student attitude was measured using the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale to determine the effect of attitude change on the decrease of disruptive behavior. The disruptive behavior was measured by computing the change in the rate of suspensions over a predetermined period of time. Results showed that the peer counseling program manifested a statistically significant behavior change (p <.05) among the forty-six subjects in the treatment group. Further analysis revealed that those students who were not suspended were more likely to have participated in the treatment group and those that were suspended were more likely not to be members of the treatment group (p <.05). Complete analysis of the study indicated an in-place middle school peer counseling program lowered the rate of suspensions within a middle school by seventy-six percent.

Extent

97 p.

Comments

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1988.|Thesis (Ed.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1988.

Identifier

FADT11922

Format

pdf

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