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Table 6 Changes in social goals from the initial to last measurement separated by competence at the beginning

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

 

M(t1)

M(tn)

SD(t1)

SD(tn)

t

df

p

Effect size

Improvement (%)

Low competence (total score < 4; N = 123)

         

Independence

3.06

4.20

0.98

1.15

10.05*

122

<.0001

1.07

69.1

Future perspective

2.88

3.85

1.25

1.65

6.15*

122

<.0001

0.66

60.2

Conflict management

2.91

4.02

0.86

1.25

8.86*

122

<.0001

1.03

71.5

Ability to criticize / take criticism

3.06

3.98

1.12

1.29

6.12*

122

<.0001

0.76

56.1

Reliability / rule compliance

3.75

4.44

1.22

1.34

4.85*

122

<.0001

0.54

55.3

Behavior at school / vocational training

3.26

4.32

1.36

1.49

6.17*

122

<.0001

0.74

61.0

Integration into (peer)groups/ friendship

3.49

4.66

1.24

1.54

8.00*

122

<.0001

0.84

65.0

Ability to communicate

3.62

4.48

0.87

1.20

7.73*

122

<.0001

0.82

61.0

Total score

3.25

4.24

0.51

1.03

10.48*

122

<.0001

1.22

81.3

High competence (total score > =4; N = 292)

         

Independence

4.85

5.18

1.06

1.21

4.36*

291

<.0001

0.29

47.3

Future perspective

4.87

4.99

1.26

1.42

1.28

291

.2003

0.09

38.7

Conflict management

4.54

4.85

1.09

1.15

4.05*

291

<.0001

0.28

44.5

Ability to criticize / take criticism

4.64

4.84

1.13

1.16

2.60

291

.0098

0.17

38.7

Reliability / rule compliance

5.47

5.45

1.07

1.16

0.33

291

.7429

−0.02

33.2

Behavior at school / vocational training

5.18

5.09

1.25

1.32

0.99

291

.3224

−0.07

33.2

Integration into (peer)groups/ friendship

5.36

5.56

1.14

1.16

2.75

291

.0062

0.17

40.1

Ability to communicate

5.01

5.20

0.99

0.99

2.63

291

.0091

0.19

40.4

Total score

4.99

5.14

0.67

0.88

3.17

291

.0017

0.19

58.6

  1. Effect size = Cohen’s d: 0.2-0.5 small effect, 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 18 t-Tests: *p = .01 → p = .00056.