A Study of the Relationship between Personal Involvement in Writing Topics and Self-Esteem

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if children with a low self-esteem rating chose fact-based topics in which they were personally involved less often than students with a high self-esteem rating. The subjects of this study were 50 students from grades two through six of a rural school district in Western New York. One classroom from each grade level was administered the Piers-Harris Children’s Self-Concept Scale. Students whose raw scores fell within the five lowest and five highest extremes of their class were used as subjects for the study. The writing folders of these subjects were collected after a three month period of writing and analyzed to determine if the topic fits the definition of a writing in which the student is personally involved. Each student was then given a score based on the percentage of topics that contain fact-based personal involvement. A Pearson Coefficient of Determination analysis was used to determine the strength of the relationship between this score and the self-esteem score, and a Point Biserial Coefficient of Determination was used to search for a global effect. The statistical analysis indicated that there was no strong relationship found between self-esteem and the percent of personal involvement in writing topics chosen. The results also indicted that there were no strong relationships between grade level and the amount of personal involvement in writing topics.