Award Date

May 2023

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Occupational Therapy Doctorate

Department

Brain Health

First Committee Member

Donnamarie Krause

Second Committee Member

Jefferson Kinney

Number of Pages

98

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this project is to determine if the development and implementation of an independent living skills workshop would improve the perceived competence of unhoused youth in performing independent living skills.Methods: The Casey Life Skills Short Assessment was used as a pre-test and post-test. It was found that unhoused young adults generally scored low on finding affordable housing, budgeting, banking skills, education training, and feeling a sense of pride in their lives. A four-week independent living skills program was designed and implemented, which included workshops focused on identified needs. The data was analyzed using a Paired Samples t-Test and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test. Results: Utilizing a paired samples t-test, scores on the Casey Life Skills Short Assessment demonstrated an improvement from pre-workshop (M=85.18, SD=8.46) to post-workshop total scores (M=88.65, SD=6.82), with a t(16) = 4.128 and p-value of < .001. The Wilcoxon also showed an increase in total and mastery scores from pre-workshop (Md = 87, z = 2.938, p =.003) to post-workshop (Md = 9, z = 2.04, p = .04). Conclusions: These preliminary results suggest that workshops may have improved independent living skills among unhoused youth. The results of the statistical analysis support the continued use of workshops for increasing self-perceived competency in independent living skills of unhoused residents at Shannon West Homeless Youth Center.

Keywords

Homeless Youth; Housing-first; Independent living; Life Skills; Transition programs; Unhoused Youth

Disciplines

Occupational Therapy

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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