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Table 7 Most frequently used goal categories and changes in individual goals from the initial to last measurement

From: Assessing change in the behavior of children and adolescents in youth welfare institutions using goal attainment scaling

N = 433

Number of goals

M(t1)

M(tn)

SD (t1)

SD (tn)

t

df

p

Effect size

Improvement (%)

Progress at school

193

3.86

4.69

1.36

1.63

7.91*

192

<.0001

0.55

54.4

Progress and behavior at vocational training

181

3.63

4.76

1.59

1.71

8.55*

180

<.0001

0.68

60.8

Behavior at school

156

3.35

4.56

1.27

1.63

9.74*

155

<.0001

0.83

63.5

Leisure activities

121

3.28

4.12

1.55

2.02

4.78*

120

<.0001

0.47

52.1

Independence

120

3.63

4.58

1.28

1.52

6.83*

119

<.0001

0.68

56.7

Health behavior

120

3.36

4.53

1.44

1.59

7.15*

119

<.0001

0.77

59.2

Social competence

69

3.52

4.83

1.21

1.46

7.14*

68

<.0001

0.98

75.4

Relationship to family members

65

3.15

4.45

1.27

1.49

7.01*

64

<.0001

0.94

64.6

Management of conflicts / ability to criticize

57

3.21

4.35

1.31

1.43

8.13*

56

<.0001

0.83

71.9

Reliability / responsibility

49

3.92

5.20

1.48

1.59

6.00*

48

<.0001

0.83

57.1

Other

363

3.22

4.56

1.37

1.64

16.74*

362

<.0001

0.89

66.7

All individual goals

1494

3.45

4.59

1.41

1.65

27.49*

1493

<.0001

0.75

61.6

  1. Effect size = Cohen’s d: 0.5-0.8 medium effect, > 0.8 large effect; improvement = percentage of clients who showed increase in this goal behavior; p-level (adjusted) for 12 t-Tests: *p = .01 → p = .00083.