Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2007

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Townsend, Tony

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible long-term effect of belonging to a high school Gay-Straight Alliance or similar support group. Specific focus was placed on college student attitudes in terms of personal, social, and academic functions. Secondarily, participant demographic and academic characteristics were examined for a possible moderating effect on their attitudes with regard to the same functions. To assess the perceived maturity of each participant, each student was given Russell Cassel 's Ego Development Scale (EDS), a 60-item questionnaire used to ascertain the degree to which individuals function in personal, social, and academic settings. The focus of this research was to test the following condensed hypotheses: With regard to personal, social, or academic issues, there is no relationship between belonging to a high school Gay-Straight Alliance or similar support group and the self-perception of maturity or ego development. In order to test the hypotheses, a test comparing the means achieved by the two groups (involved versus not-involved) on each of the subtests (personal, social, and academic) was conducted. Additionally, a general linear model was used to discover ifthe demographic or academic characteristics of participants played a moderating effect on the outcome oftheir scores on the subtests of the EDS. The findings indicated a connection between high school support participation and a high social subscore, or high social maturity. While the mean score achieved by the involved group was higher than the mean score achieved by the not-involved group in both the personal and educational subtests as well, those connections were not found to be statistically significant. Secondarily, while many of the demographic variables tested did not prove to have a significant effect on the personal, social, or educational subscores, some interesting themes emerged. These include a noted disordinal interaction between year in school and the differences found in mean subscores between participants versus non-participants. Recommendations for future research are offered, including providing the participants a more personal forum for sharing their views with regard to how high school support changes student attitudes.

Extent

124 p.

Comments

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2007.|Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2007.

Identifier

FA00000712

Format

pdf

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