There is nothing inherently wrong with research done by a student
per se, as it would have been overseen by a faculty member. However, Valerie B. Shapiro's paper, "
Is Long-Term Residential Treatment Effective for Adolescents? A Treatment Outcome Study," is
clearly material that was used to fulfill graduation requirements, rather than any ground breaking research that would have made it into a peer-reviewed journal on its own merits.
Despite an apparent posture of good and scrupulous intentions, Shapiro evidently does not know enough about the notoriously
unscrupulous marketing habits of this industry, nor know enough about the targeted program itself. Much of her description of ASR appears to have been taken at face value, straight from an ASR brochure:
"ASR provides an accredited high school education on the grounds in addition to 24-hour crisis intervention services and behavioral observation."[/list]
Moreover, the actual number of participants in this survey is staggeringly low. It is impossible to draw any meaningful statistical conclusions from the data. There were fewer student surveys returned for analysis (17), than there are pages in this paper. Perhaps this is why the results discussed in the text, as well as the tables, are expressed almost exclusively in terms of
percentages.
Pages 11 and 12 do give some relevant facts:
Participants in the present study
Participants in this study are students that graduated the Academy of Swift River between the dates of December 17, 1999 and November 16, 2001. Of the 191 students that were scheduled to graduate during this time period, 151 actually graduated. Some of the cited reasons for dropping out include the transfer into another program, self-dismissal at age eighteen, medical leave, and running away. Of those that graduated, 125 students had mailing addresses that could be verified through the yellow pages and other Internet search engines. This excluded 3 graduates living outside the United States, 24 graduates with a name change or an unlisted address, and 1 graduate who had committed suicide.[/list]
A Description of the Respondents
Thirty families agreed to participate in this extensive survey, making for a 24% response rate. Of these families, only 2 returned more than one parent questionnaire, and only 17 students returned their self-reports. Of the parent respondents, 70% were mothers, 20% fathers, 3% stepmothers, and 7% both mothers and fathers in collaboration. Thirty-eight percent of these parents reported living with the graduate, 30% reported living apart from the graduate, and 33% reported living with the graduate on a part-time basis. Table 1 presents additional demographic information on the present family structure of ASR graduates. Two-thirds of these parents had a male graduate. Parents reported speaking to their child an average of more than twice a week, but not quite daily.
The student respondents ranged in age from 16-20 years old (M = 17.9). Half of them were female, and all but one was Caucasian. Of all the 30 students for whom data were collected, 13% returned to his or her original school after ASR, 3% enrolled in a new public school, 10% enrolled in a new private school while living at home, 33% attended a residential boarding school, 6.7% attended college while living at home, 23% went straight to a residential college, 3% found employment while living at home, and 6% attended other residential programs for adolescents. At the time of the survey, 40% were juniors or seniors in high school, 30% were in their first year of college, and 13% were in their second year of college. A total of 56% of students reported some attempt at a college education, though only 43% of the students were enrolled at the time of the study. Sixty-six percent of students reported currently having a job. The average ASR graduate reported contact with somebody from his or her ASR graduating class within the past two weeks and with a staff member within the past three months. The length of time since graduation for this sample ranged from 6.5 to 26.5 months, the average being 13.9 months.[/list]
