Graduate Student Capstones, Projects, and Theses

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Human Agency and the Arts: Implementing Sources of Self-Efficacy in Afterschool Community Arts Programs as Preventative Measures Against Poverty
(University of Oregon, 2015-06-15) Wong, Meredith
According to Albert Bandura, self-efficacy is the beliefs in one’s capabilities to influence the situations that affect his or her own life. Self-efficacy affects one’s level of resilience in the face of adversity as well as how much stress and internal psychological systems one experiences. These effects are particularly important for youth living in poverty, who already experience a range of negative psychosocial and physical environmental demands that increase their likelihood of remaining in poverty as adults. Through a systematic literature review, components of a logic model were applied to understand the influence of three afterschool community arts programs on participating youth. Results showed that these programs served as sources of support and primary preventions for youth living in poverty by involving large social networks and promoting individual characteristics, particularly through implementing sources of self-efficacy, which included enactive mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, and verbal persuasion. Considering the environmental demands of this population, however, more research should investigate how participation in afterschool community arts programs can mitigate stress while further influencing self-efficacy of youth living in poverty.