BIO Girls Impact
The mission and intended outcome of the BIO Girls program is an increase in self-esteem in participants.
In 2018, a partnership was established with Anita Gust, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Exercise Science and Wellness at the University of Minnesota-Crookston to conduct independent research measuring the change in self-esteem of participants. In 2019, the partnership was expanded to include a collaboration with Darcie Sell, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Chair, Psychology at Concordia College.
Research Method:
A validated tool, the KINDL-R revised questionnaire, was used to assess Health-Related Quality of Life in children and adolescents. The KINDL-R includes six quality of life sub-scales: Self-Esteem, Social Well-Being, Emotional Well-Being, Physical Well-Being, Family Life, School Life.
The survey is deployed pre-BIO Girls and post-BIO Girls to both participants and their parents/guardians. Surveys are then provided to the researchers and are entered into a data analytics platform to analyze results.
Sample Size:
Children: 678
Parents: 552
Results:
Child surveys: Significant increases were found between child pre- and post-surveys for the following sub-scales: Emotional, Self-Esteem, Family, and School.
Parent surveys: Significant increases between parent pre- and post- surveys were found for all sub-scales: Physical, Emotional, Self-Esteem, Family, Social, and School.
Overall 58.4% of participants experienced an increase in self-esteem.
Significance:
The data exhibits a meaningful and significant increase between pre- and post-surveys between both participants and parents/guardian. In this way, we <researchers> can be confident that this increase can be attributed to the action of BIO Girls and not due to chance.
BIO Girls Statement:
Our mission is to improve the self-esteem of adolescent girls. The volunteer leaders and mentors, parents and others state they can 'see' the change in their participant(s) during the 12-weeks of programming. Teachers and counselors provide feedback about the leadership skills of those participating. And BIO Girls themselves share stories about the impact BIO Girls has had on their lives. The independent research results help validate the observations of those close to participants.
We are proud of our work to address the epidemic of low self-esteem in adolescent girls and will continue to work towards our vision - a world where all girls have the confidence to be their bright, bold, beautiful self - inside and out.