School drop - out in Romania: impact assessment of preventivecurative strategies in children

Abstract

Remedial activities are considered by many authors as an effective strategy for preventing and reducing school dropout. In recent years however, numerous studies showed evidence that we cannot point to one factor that influences the decision to leave school and to only one strategy to prevent or reduce it. Meanwhile the results in the field of social and emotional development emphasize the essential role of these skills in school success. This is way more and more researchers and practitioners recommend that school dropout must be looked at and addressed from a more complex perspective. In the present study we aimed to evaluate the impact of a complex intervention program, developed in order to prevent and reduce school dropout for 242 students from disadvantaged backgrounds in Vâlcea County. The children were tested at the beginning and at the end of the program using 6 scales selected from BASC and ASEBA evaluation systems. Due to the pandemic situation, the questionnaires measuring adaptability, social skills, learning abilities, affective problems, anxiety problems and ADHD problems have been completed by teachers, using google forms application. Using ANOVA with repeated measures, the data collected emphasize that the proficiency profile of the primary school and secondary- school children, changes significantly between the results obtained in pre and post-test, for all variables evaluated. The data collected showed that the program increases adaptability to the school environment and learning skills, and anxiety, loneliness, and inattention decrease significantly. Even though, we considered it necessary to identify demographic factors that may impact the effectiveness of such an intervention. Practical implications for similar future projects are further discussed in the article.

Keywords

• school dropout
• remedial and psycho- educational intervention
• social-emotional competencies