Evaluating the Sandcastles Program: A Group Intervention for Children of Divorce

The Sandcastles program has been utilized nationwide as a one-time group intervention to assist children of divorcing parents. For several years Miami-Dade family court services mandated participation in the program for divorcing or separating families. Currently, there is a paucity of research and evaluation to ascertain the efficacy of the program. This symposium will provide details and discussion regarding the planning and process used to establish an evaluation plan to assess the effectiveness of the Sandcastles program for families in MiamiDade County. Any preliminary outcomes available at the time of the symposium will also be shared

College female-athlete identity in sport culture on campus: A narrative inquiry

This research seeks to uncover the experience of college female student-athlete as they construct their identities by participating in sport culture on a university campus. This research adopts Vygotsky’s culture-history activity theory (CHAT) to frame a qualitative inquiry by examining following overarching research question: How does sport culture on a university campus mediate college female-athlete identity? The participants included three college female-athletes who are college athletes that are members of college sport teams that participate in national sport competitions under the auspices of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The instrumentation of this research is an open-ended, in-depth, and semi-structured interview, and each of three interviews lasted 30 to 40 minutes. After the interviews were transcribed verbatim, the researchers used the constant comparative method to code the research data. Subsequent interpretation pointed to findings that superficial campus culture, united sport culture on campus, misunderstanding about being female athletes and college students, organized campus life, and inclusive identity all played a part in the formation of these athletes’ identities.Findings are discussed in the context of Vygotsky’s culture-history activity theory. These findings may help female-athletes to have a better understanding of their identities in their local communities