title: Building Resilience After School for Early Adolescents in Urban Poverty: Open Trial of Leaders @ Play.
abstract: Leaders @ Play is a park after-school program for urban middle school youth designed to leverage recreational activities for social emotional learning. Mental health and park staff co-facilitated sports and games to teach and practice problem solving, emotion regulation, and effective communication. Additional practice occurred during multi-family groups and summer internships as junior camp counselors. We examined feasibility and promise via an open trial (n = 3 parks, 46 youth, 100 % African American, 100 % low-income, 59 % female, M = 13.09 years old). Improvements in social skills and reductions in problem behaviors lend support to after school programs as a space for mental health promotion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Center for Children and Families, Clinical Science Program in Child and Adolescent Psychology, Florida International University, 11200 S.W. 8th Street, Miami, FL, 33199, USA. slfrazi@fiu.edu.
authors.forename: Stacy L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Frazier
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Institute for Juvenile Research, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, USA.
authors.forename: Sonya Mathies
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Dinizulu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Institute for Juvenile Research, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, USA.
authors.forename: Dana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rusch
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Center for Children and Families, Clinical Science Program in Child and Adolescent Psychology, Florida International University, 11200 S.W. 8th Street, Miami, FL, 33199, USA.
authors.forename: Maya M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Boustani
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Institute for Juvenile Research, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, USA.
authors.forename: Tara G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Mehta
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Institute for Juvenile Research, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, USA.
authors.forename: Kristin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Reitz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000068316:Parks, Recreational; D011203:Poverty; D011340:Problem Solving; D011998:Recreation; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D000068356:Self-Control; D000067570:Social Learning; D013177:Sports; D014505:Urban Population
keywords: After school; Early adolescence; Risk and resilience; Urban poverty