Masters Theses

Date of Award

5-1998

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Recreation and Leisure Studies

Major Professor

Gene A. Hayes

Committee Members

Frank Hendrick, Paula Zemel

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of participation in adventure games on the self-concept of adolescents with hearing impairments. The population of this study consisted of 13 eighth and ninth grade students attending the Tennessee School for the Deaf, Knoxville Tennessee, during the Spring Semester of 1998. The Pier's-Harris Children's Self Concept Scale (PHCSCS) was administered to the subjects prior to participating in a six week adventure game program. A post-test of the PHCSCS was administered following the adventure games program. The research question states that there will be in increase in self-concept following the adventure games program. The following sub questions were investigated: Does the change in self-concept vary by gender? Does the age of the subject affect the change in self-concept? Does the grade level of the subject affect the change in self concept? Through a comparison of the pre-test and post test scores using t-tests these questions were addressed. No statistical difference between the control group and the experimental group was determined using the Mann-Whitney and the Wilcoxon W non parametric tests. The overall differences in the pre-test and post-test scores yielded a one tailed significance of 0.1575 with an alpha level of 0.05. The small sample size is the likely cause of the non-normality of the data. The sub questions were not addressed because of the small sample size. Due to the limitations in the sample size and the lack of statistically significant findings at the .05 level it is not possible to draw definitive conclusions from this research. Observations by the researcher indicate that behavioral changes occurred in the experimental group during the adventure games program suggesting that more research in the area of the benefits of using adventure games to increase self-concept should be conducted.

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