Teenage Helper: A Role in Community Mental Health

G. A. ROGENESS M.D. 1 , and R. A. BEDNAR 2 1 Child Psychiatrist, Katharine Wright Psychiatric Clinic, 923 West Wellington Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60657 and Instructor, Department of Psychiatry, Abraham Lincoln School of Medicine, University of Illinois Medical center, and Child Fellow, Institute for Juvenile Research, Chicago 2 Psychologist, Katharine Wright Psychiatric Clinic, 923 West Wellington Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60657 To test the effect of being tutors on black, inner-city teenagers, the authors used high school students to tutor fourth- and fifth-grade children who had demonstrated behavior and personality problems in school. Tutoring took place in two schools and a mental health center. The tutors were evaluated on the basis of an interview, a sentence completion test, a questionnaire, and math and reading achievement tests before and after their involvement in the project. While many tutors showed improved achievement scores and most showed changed attitudes toward others, self, education, and the future, the degree of improvement appeared to depend on the structure of the tutoring program.