| The number of at-risk youth within this country is steadily increasing by the year. These youth are vulnerable to academic failure, juvenile delinquency, substance abuse, unemployment, promiscuity, and other dangers (Smith, 2006). Low self-esteem has been suggested as a possible cause of at-risk behavior and maladaptive attributions (Lipschitz-Elhawi & Itzhaky, 2005). Prevention techniques for at-risk youth tend to utilize an amalgamation of procedures that seek to protect and educate the youth (Chipungu, Hermann, Sambrano, Nistler, Sale & Springer, 2000). Despite the fact that resiliency is not fully understood, it may be a promising target for prevention programs for at-risk youth.;The objectives of this study were to use resilience-building and cognitive-behavioral techniques to increase at-risk youths’ self-esteem and attraction to school. Fourteen at-risk youths were evenly distributed between the experimental group, who received both resilience-building procedures and cognitive-behavioral techniques, and the control group, who only received standard mentoring. Measurement was completed at pre- and post-sessions with the Implicit Association Test, the Name-Letter Task, the Self-Esteem Index, the Behavior Assessment System for Children and the Adolescent Resilience Scale. Results indicated that both the experimental and control groups demonstrated increases in explicit self-esteem. However, the experimental group had higher implicit self-esteem at post-test on one indicator. There were not any increases in attraction to school for either group. The two groups showed different patterns on the measure of resiliency, but the experimental group did display a significant increase in one aspect of resiliency compared to the control group.;The results of this study are encouraging, but limited due to the small sample size. In addition, the prevention program did not include any aspects of culture appreciation, which might have been advantageous. Recommendations for future studies include adding a wait-list comparison group and incorporating a higher number of participants. Despite the limitations of this study, the findings suggest that there is valuable potential for using resiliency-building within prevention programs that target at-risk youth. |
