Education Commons^™

Assessing Self-Esteem In Uae Students With And Without Special Needs: Pilot Study Using Adapted Rosenberg Scale, Malak Mustafa Alsaad

Theses

Self-esteem is known to be the way that a person values and perceives him/herself. It is affected by many factors and impacts on the person’s life. The main objective of this study was to investigate possible differences on self-esteem between typical students and those who have been diagnosed with special educational needs. In addition, the study explores teachers’ awareness on the importance of self-esteem on children’s life and their recommendations for improving their students’ self-esteem in UAE schools. The study used a mixed methods design and was conducted in two phases. During the first phase a sample of 40 students …

The Confidence Gap: How The Self-Esteem Of Middle School Females Affects Their Leadership Self-Efficacy, Amanda F. Bitner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Though studies suggest social-emotional learning (SEL) programs have a positive impact on youth development, the focus, implementation, and consensus on SEL programs vary. These programs largely overlook adolescent self-esteem, which is at its lowest during the formative middle school years and twice as likely to be lower among females than males. This study attempted to understand whether SEL education impacts middle school females' self-esteem and leadership and whether their self-esteem and leadership self-efficacy correlate. Key research questions explored middle school females’ self-perception of their self-esteem and leadership self-efficacy levels. This quantitative descriptive study aimed to examine whether there was a …

Does Participation In Extracurricular Theatre Productions Influence Emotional Wellbeing?, Francis V. Sada Gutiérrez

International Graduate Program for Educators Master's Projects

The purpose of this study was to research whether or not participating in extracurricular theatre productions had an impact on the emotional wellbeing of students in middle and high school. Students involved in extracurricular theatre productions during the 2021-2022 school year were surveyed and asked to rate their level of confidence, self-esteem, among others. They were also asked open-ended questions regarding their experience in the theatre department and the learnings or benefits they perceived to have gained as a result. The multiple-choice questions showed data ranging from students claiming they were very confident to not confident at all, but the …

Increasing Adolescents' Awareness Of The Impacts Of Social Networking Sites, Karina Vega

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Many adolescents are unaware of the impacts that social networking sites may have on them. According to Anderson and Jiang (2018), 95% of adolescents have access to a smartphone. Furthermore, Anderson and Jiang (2018) stated that 45% of adolescents are engaged with online activities on a continual basis. Social networking sites may affect adolescents' view of their body image and lower their self esteem. Anderson and Jiang (2018) discussed the difference between female and male adolescents' use of social media, reporting that 50% of female adolescents engage with social media on a continual basis compared to 39% of male adolescents.

Exploring The Role Of Core Positive Selves With Men Convicted Of Child Sexual Offenses: A Character Strengths Initiative, Tiffany A. Miner

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

The aim of this study was to help men convicted of child sexual offenses learn to recognize and engage their character strengths over 12 months. Participants were six men convicted of contact and noncontact (internet) child sexual offenses. All participants were members of a community-based reintegration group for registered citizens. In the first weeks of the study, participants received the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths survey. The survey, containing 240 questions—10 items for each of the 24 character strengths outlined—helped participants identify their top character strengths. The study explored (a) how the men could use their character strengths to …

Classroom Pull-Out: Helping Or Hurting Students’ Self-Concepts And Academic Success?, Allie Reifler

Senior Theses and Projects

It is commonly debated what method of school instruction is best for young students: classroom pull-out for additional resources or inclusion models. There is a vast amount of literature that exists on the topic, however a portion of it is quite conflicting. Some say that inclusion methods are best for students’ academic and social needs while others argue classroom pull-out, or resource room, is more beneficial for students’ academic performance and self-esteem. The current study provided a possible answer as to the effects classroom pull-out in the third grade has on academic success and self-concepts in the fifth grade. This …

Meeting The Unique Needs Of Twice-Exceptional Learners, Chelsea Feider

Graduate Teacher Education

Differentiating instruction for all learners is a tremendous challenge for educators in the elementary setting. This is especially difficult when students have disabilities or are gifted. In some cases, students have both and are therefore labeled as twice-exceptional. These students need special accommodations to be successful in the classroom. This paper analyzed a variety of qualitative and quantitative studies to determine the importance of using a variety of testing and observation methods to identify twice-exceptional learners, outline appropriate accommodations to support twice-exceptional learners, describe the importance of key stakeholders’ involvement in the process, and describe the effects of identification and …

Language – Liberation – Leadership The Identity Reconstruction And Lived Experiences Of Subaltern (Non-Elite) Learners Of English In Pakistan, Aamir Hasan

Dissertations

English enjoys an unassailable position of dominance in the world today, especially as the language of leadership. In most of the developing world, fluency in English is a must for meaningful employment and leadership opportunities. Yet English is the preserve of a tiny elite class, who use it as a first language. For the vast majority, the prospects for learning English are bleak. However, some individuals not hailing from the elite classes acquire the language through personal effort and perseverance. Yet, researchers have not studied this population.

The purpose of this study was to understand the lived experiences of non-elite …

Empowering The Plus Size Body Using Dance As Therapy, Ashley Sampson

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

In Western society, having the “ideal” body image and size is a societal issue. It is advertised throughout media outlets that the “ideal” body is what should be desired, and any other body type is “abnormal”. This capstone thesis focused on the effectiveness of dance as therapy and changing the perspectives of all body types, to support and empower all bodies including plus-sized bodies. The use of individual interviews, in an open dialogue model, with a select few members (3) of Soul thru Sole, including the CEO of the dance company; which focuses on empowering women no matter their age, …

Exploring The Moderation Mechanisms Of The Association Between Acculturative Stress And Social Self-Efficacy Among Asian International Students, Jinzhao Zhao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Asian international students account for 70% of international students in the U.S., which makes 4.3% of total population enrolled in American universities and colleges. They experience stress related to adapting to mainstream culture in the U.S. (i.e., acculturative stress), which negatively impacts their mental health and view of self. The negative impacts also include willingness and ability to perform social behaviors and to maintain interpersonal relationships (i.e., social self-efficacy). Previous acculturation studies proposed from a theoretical perspective that several factors may alleviate the negative impact of acculturative stress and enhance Asian international students' social self-efficacy. These factors include acculturation orientation …

Ethnic Identity And School Belonging Among Pacific Islander High School Students, Mari N. Oto

Theses and Dissertations

Pacific Islander high school students in the state of Utah specifically, but across the United States generally, face significant challenges such as high levels of high school dropout and low levels of academic attainment. The purpose of this study was to examine if components of an achieved ethnic identity (exploration and commitment) are positively related to high levels of school belonging among Pacific Islander high school students in Utah. I further investigated whether self-esteem was a mediating factor in any observed relationship between ethnic identity and school belonging. Participants in this study were Pacific Islander youth between the ages of …

Organizational Information Security: Strategies To Minimize Workplace Cyberloafing For Increased Productivity, Hawazin Al Abbasi

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Productivity loss occurs in organizations that experience high levels of personal Internet use by employees on company time, which includes employees using smartphones to surf without needing the firm's Internet connection. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore reliable ways for organizational leaders to monitor or limit their employees' use of smartphone technology for personal use (cyberloafing) while on the job to minimize wasted work time. Social cognitive theory, which includes an emphasis on human behavioral changes based upon the environment, people, and behavior, served as the conceptual framework. The general research question was as follows: How …

The Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect In Gifted Youth In China, Yehan Zhou

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Research has demonstrated that academic self-concept is subject to change throughout the course of schooling due to contextual factors. Students placed in highly selective programs tended to have lower academic self-concepts than their peers with similar ability levels in less selective programs or schools due to the shift of frame of references, which is known as the “big-fish-little-pond effect”. However, there was research demonstrating individual factors play an important role in driving changes in academic- self-concept. The first aim of this study was to investigate the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) in gifted college students in mainland China and to examine whether …

The Effect Of Multiage Grouping On The Self-Esteem Of Students, Aaron Farrant

Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership Dissertations

Educators know children need to learn at a level that is appropriately challenging for them. If the material is too difficult, the children will often feel defeated and stop trying. If the material is too easy, the children will often lose interest and not achieve their potential. Educators also know children learn at different speeds and have different abilities, even children who are the same age. Despite knowing this, the traditional educational model is designed to group children based solely on age and the expectation is for the teacher to differentiate to meet the needs of each individual child in …

The Mediating Effects Of Positive Thinking And Social Support On Suicide Resilience Among Undergraduate Students, Denise Marie Matel-Anderson

Dissertations (1934 -)

Suicide has been the 2nd leading cause of death for 18-24-year-olds in the US since 2011. The stress experienced by undergraduate college students has the potential to increase ones’ risk for suicide. Resilience theory was used as a theoretical framework to examine the interplay between risk and protective factors. A cross-sectional and correlational design was used to assess the mediating effects of positive thinking and/or social support on suicide resilience in 131 college students 18-24 years old who completed an online survey. An indirect effect of self-esteem on suicide resilience was found through positive thinking and social support indicating that …

An Inventory Of Selected Mentor And Protégé Motivational And Effectiveness Characteristics At The United States Air Force Academy (Usafa), David Huston

Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the mentoring culture at USAFA in terms of selected mentor and protégé motivational and effectiveness characteristics of faculty and administrative personnel (referred to as permanent party members) (mentors) and cadets (protégés). Results offer evidence which support the presence of a somewhat healthy culture in that those who indicated they were currently mentoring cadets were more generative, altruistic, and wanted to mentor cadets more compared to those who indicated they were not mentoring cadets. However, those who were currently mentoring cadets did not necessarily possess better emotional intelligence compared to non-mentors. Also, cadets …

Explaining The Difference In The Self-Esteem Of Students With Learning Disabilities Who Receive Pull-Out Services And Those Who Do Not Receive Pull-Out Services In A Private School Setting., Brittany Ann Cox

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Students with learning disabilities are a minority group in the private school setting. In order to accommodate students with learning disabilities, private schools provide pull-out services. Pull-out services involve students being pulled from the classroom to work with the resource teacher to receive various accommodations. Students who are eligible for accommodations are those who have been formally diagnosed with a learning disability or students who are in the process of being tested for a learning disability. While the special education setting has been the topic of a great deal of research, the research is lacking, nonetheless (Terman, Larner, Stevenson, & …

Depictions Of The Middle Class In Magnolia Award Nominees, 2013-2015, Anna K. Rawls

Honors Theses

This study’s purpose was to research depictions of the middle social class in Magnolia Award nominees from the years 2013-2015. A flexible approach to qualitative content analysis that incorporated both deductive and inductive analysis was utilized to identify new frames, or portrayals, of middle class characters in this set of books. As a result of this analysis, several new frames of middle class characters were identified including young characters facing adult problems, being victims of teasing, and experiencing low levels of self-esteem. Additionally, a frame previously noted by Forest (2014b) that shows characters achieving upward mobility, or “rags-to-riches,” was found …

Esteemicide: Countering The Legacy Of Self-Esteem In Education, Kenzo Bergeron

LMU/LLS Theses and Dissertations

The concept of self-esteem has so thoroughly infiltrated American education that “most educators believe developing self-esteem to be one of the primary purposes of public education” (Stout, 2001, p. 119). That the available scholarship challenging the validity of self-esteem principles has had little to no impact on schooling and school policy demonstrates the need for more a comprehensive interrogation of a concept that has become so pervasive and commonsensical that many administrators and teachers do not even think to question its place in traditional pedagogy, let alone consider the possibility that self-esteem is a damaging ideological construct. The rhetorical (and …

Teen Perceptions Of Cell Phone And Internet Sexual Messaging: Trends And Predictors, David Gregg

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to propose and test a predictive model for high school sexting in order to better understand influences and characteristics that contribute most to one’s decision to sext. Sexting was defined as either sending or receiving photos, videos, or text messages that contained full nudity, partial nudity, sexual requests, or comments of a sexual nature. Rates and typical recipients of sexual content were also examined in this study. A sample of 314 high school students in an urban area of Southeast Michigan were surveyed. Males were found to more frequently report engaging in nearly …

Motivational Effects Of Non-Contingent Reinforcement In Children, Alexandra S. Leaskas

Departmental Honors Projects

Non-contingent reinforcement is random and non-informative feedback. Berglas and Jones (1978) first reported that non-contingent reinforcement leads to self-handicapping in adult males. Self-handicapping can be described as a premeditated adaptive behavior that protects against negative attributions to the self after failure. The purpose of this study is to explore whether or not the same effect will be found in children of both sexes. Participants (children in first and second grade) received contingent (informative) or non-contingent (non-informative) reinforcement while playing the children’s game “I Never Forget a Face.” Children were given the opportunity to self-handicap immediately after reinforcement. After the opportunity …

Labeling: Student Self-Esteem And The Stigma Of A Label, Amanda Kay Sowards

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Labels help to provide educational support to students who struggle academically, physically, emotionally and socially. The decision to use a label should be carefully considered due to the possibility of negative connotations regarding social relationships, personal preferences and the effects on self-esteem. The author discusses a study that examines the effects of labeling in regard to the impact on the self-esteem of students with disabilities and will scrutinizes if students with disabilities are negatively perceived by their peers. Current research of labeling, self-esteem and social disadvantage is discussed. Due to the overwhelming number of students being labeled and a lack …

A Program Designed To Address Academic Failure Due To Alcohol Abuse, Frank James Plateroti

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This project study addressed the problem of alcohol and binge drinking at a local rural college campus in the Northeast United States and the lack of an effective long-term academic intervention program to address the problem. The purpose of this research study was to determine the prevalence of the problem of the alcohol abuse problem and to develop a long-term program that would respond to the problem of repeat alcohol offenders. Guided by Mezirow’s transformative learning theory, which holds that transformational learning causes changes in a learner that significantly shift the pattern of a learner’s future experiences, this study examined …

Self-Perception As A Predictor Of Academic Performance In Adolescents With Learning Disabilities, Kirk Lamar Rhodes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Adolescents often suffer with negative feelings and low self-esteem, leading to an overall negative self-perception. Prior researchers have linked adolescent self-perception, academic performance, and learning disabilities, but more research is required. This quantitative study examined relationships between self-perception of reading, writing, spelling, and mathematics competence. In addition, global self-worth was examined through the Harter-Renick Self-Perception Profile for Learning Disabled Students (HRSPP). Student academic performance as measured by Stanford Achievement Test-10 Total Reading (SATrd) and Total Math (SATmh) scores among adolescents with learning disabilities were also examined. Student records from the Green School were gathered (n = 128), with their perceived …

Caring, Advocacy, And Collaboration: A Study Of Teacher Empowerment, Effectiveness, And Career Satisfaction, Sylvia Satterfield Hodge

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate how caring and advocating for marginalized students, along with collaboration among colleagues, contributes to teacher retention, empowerment, and job satisfaction. Goals of this research included unraveling ways in which caring teachers contribute to the self-esteem and academic success of students of poverty, particularly students of color; along with investigating how collaboration among teachers affects teacher attitudes toward the profession. This research was conducted through a case study which involved interviews of individuals, a focus group discussion, as well as detailed study of literature on the topics of teacher advocacy, job satisfaction, and …

Stepping Out Of The Dirt: A Case Study Of The Impact Of Reflective Expressive Writing On Male Teens Recently Released From A Closed Custody Facility, April D. King Ms.

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

When researching the topic of at-risk youth and reflective expressive writing there is little literature to be found. The limited literature that exists with regards to reflective expressive writing is not geared toward a population of at-risk teens (Burton & King, 2004). Although there is literature on alternative programming for at-risk youth (McKee & MacDonald, 2006), very little discusses reflective writing. The research question being addressed is: What is the impact of reflective expressive writing on male teens that have recently been released from a closed custody facility? The aim of this study is to present rich descriptive narratives that …

Adolescent Behavioral Adjustment In Girls Adopted From China: Examining Pre-Adoption And Post-Adoption Factors, Derek Justin Powers

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite research that indicates that internationally adopted children are at greater risk for poor developmental outcomes than their non-adopted peers (Bimmel, Juffer, IJzendoorn, Bakermans-Kranenburg, 2003; Juffer, & van IJzendoorn, 2005), girls adopted from China into Western culture tend to thrive, exhibiting high self-esteem, low behavior problems (i.e., both externalizing and internalizing), and excelling academically (Rojewski, Shapiro, & Shapiro, 2000; Tan & Jordan-Arthur, 2012). However, few studies have examined whether this trend continues into adolescence, as well as to what factors lead to these positive outcomes. The purpose of this study was to investigate predictors of mental health outcomes among internationally …

Self-Esteem Of Boys During The Transition From A Single-Sex Middle School To A Coeducational High School, Patrick Atkerson

Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine how men who attended a single-sex elementary and middle school as a boy describe their experiences following their transition to coeducational high schools and how the participants perceived those experiences influenced their global self-esteem during the first years in high school. Two questions guided the research. 1) What changes, if any, did the men in this study perceive in their global self-esteem, as measured by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale after their transition from a single-sex middle school to a coeducational high school? 2) If there were changes to the levels …

The Effect Of Interpersonal Relationships On The Body Image Of First Year, Women Of Color Studying At Predominately White Undergraduate Institutions, Lauren Kross

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

"The Effect of Interpersonal Relationships on the Body Image of First Year, Women of Color Studying at Predominately White Undergraduate Institutions" by Lauren Kross, a 2014 graduate student in the Gender and Women's Studies Department at Minnesota State University Mankato, focuses on how relationships and peer groups positively or negatively impact the body image of first year women of color studying at Minnesota State University Mankato, a predominately white undergraduate institution. The first year of college is a time that students experience many changes in their environment, academics, interests, and identity development. Their previously formed and newly formed relationships play …

The Effect Of Ability Grouping For Talmud On The Academic Self-Concept Of Jewish Orthodox Middle School Students, Yitzchak Tzvi Goldberg

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers have examined the relationship between ability grouping and academic self-concept in math, science, and English, and have found varying results. However, previous studies have not examined the relationship between ability grouping and academic self-concept for the subject of Talmud. Middle school presents a unique opportunity to examine this relationship because middle school is when both ability grouping for Talmud and the study of Talmud begin. The purpose of this correlational study was to assess the relationship between ability grouping and the academic self-concept for Talmud in middle school students. The predictive relationship among individual academic achievement, school average achievement, …