Self-affirmation in an Educational Context as an Engaging Intervention

Abstract

According to the self-affirmation theory, certain stigmatized groups such as those who belong to ethnic minorities or families of low socioeconomic status (SES) experience stereotype threats that negatively affect their academic performance. When these risks are most apparent, participating in value affirmation writing exercises can help people feel good about themselves, neutralize negative emotions, and promote academic learning, therefore making their academic achievement levels similar to other students who are not a part of certain stigmatized groups. This study aims to investigate the effect of implementing a more engaging self-affirmation intervention on the academic achievement of students from certain stigmatized groups. It also investigates the moderation effects of two different Big Five traits which are Neuroticism and Extraversion. The sample consists of students aged 16-18 years old in sixth form (year 12 and year 13 of secondary school) in southeast England (N = 339). Of them, 28 students were eligible for free school meals (FSM) which was used as a proxy for low SES. Students completed three short writing exercises throughout the academic year. Those randomly assigned to an affirmed condition wrote about values that were important to them after three classes on values while those assigned to a control condition did regular classes. Overall, there were no significant differences between the averages of the intervention group vs. control group on academic achievement. Multiple regression analyses showed that neither Neuroticism nor Extraversion were significant moderators. However, it was observed that FSM had a marginally significant negative effect on academic achievement. In conclusion, the benefits of the self-affirmation intervention were not observed in this particular study. However, it is important to interpret nonsignificant results carefully and consider all possible explanations as to why the expected effects were not observed. An example of that is the amount of missing data in this study.