MCAT Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior: Passage 12 — Flashcards

Use the following passage to answer questions:

A North American middle school was the setting of a research study about the implementation of an intervention to prevent gendered harassment. The teachers in the school (n = 70) were divided into two groups (n = 35 each), one that received the intervention and one that did not. All of the teachers in the school participated in the study. The intervention included a week-long training during the summer about gender roles, gender identification, and gendered harassment. A major component of the training was to have the teachers identify and confront their limiting beliefs about gender identity in general and gender in preadolescents in particular. This process upset many of the teachers to the point where six teachers almost dropped out of the study. However, all six worked through their feelings and made the commitment to continue in the study. During the fall semester of the school year, the teachers in the intervention group met a minimum of twice a week for 30 minutes to discuss in small groups the issues they were facing, and specific challenges were addressed. The researchers also met with the participants in a large group once a month for a 2-hour debriefing to discuss issues raised by the small groups and to provide additional training as necessary. Teachers in the intervention group also were encouraged to keep a diary, personal blog, or some other record of their experiences. All 35 began the diary process, but only 27 used it consistently during the intervention. Some of these teachers went even further and formed online groups. The entire school-based portion of the intervention lasted one semester (15 weeks).

Data were collected in the following manner from all 70 teachers and their students. Classroom observations were made during weeks 1 and 2, weeks 7 and 8, and weeks 14 and 15. All teachers were interviewed at the beginning and end of the study. Students were given a Likert-type questionnaire during weeks 1 and 15. This questionnaire was administered in a single setting. There was one significant difference on the student questionnaire at the beginning of the study, which was that transgender students were more likely to report feeling bullied. Qualitative data were quantified where appropriate, and statistical tests of significance were performed. The observational data showed that the teachers who were in the intervention group were more effective at dealing with incidents of bullying at the times they occurred than the nonintervention group. The students of the teachers in the intervention group were significantly less likely to express or conversely be the victims of gendered harassment after the intervention. For the nonintervention group, perceived lack of administrative support and lack of training were the most common reasons given for failure to deal with gendered harassment in the classroom. Both groups expressed fear of parental backlash and lack of community conformity as reasons that gendered harassment interventions may not be very effective.