Small-Group Investigation of the True Goals Curriculum with High School Students: A Randomized Control Study

Abstract

This is the second in a series of two studies examining the impact of the True Goals (TG) school counseling curriculum on important constructs related to school success for students in elementary, middle, and high school. In this study, TG was implemented as a small-group intervention with 47 students in grades 9–12 across two schools and two school districts in the Southwest region of the United States. We used a waitlist control design with randomized assignment to intervention and control groups to assess the impact of the TG small-group intervention on students’ (a) academic self-efficacy and (b) social self-efficacy. Results showed a significant difference between the intervention and control groups on post-intervention scores regarding social self-efficacy, with moderate effect size. We offer implications for high school counselors' use of the TG curriculum to increase social self-efficacy of students. Please refer to the first study for information on the impact of TG within a sample of elementary and middle school students.