Graduation Year

2015

Graduation Month

May

Document Type

Professional Paper

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

School or Department

Interdisciplinary Studies

Faculty Mentor Department

Communication Studies

Faculty Mentor

Dr. Stephen Yoshimura

Keywords

expressive arts, children, education, well-being, creative, self-worth

Subject Categories

Arts and Humanities | Education | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to discover the extent to which expressive arts increase well-being in children. Expressive arts are being defined here as theatre, dance, art, and creative writing. Well-being is defined as self-efficacy and self-worth. The project was carried out in a four-week expressive arts program designed to teach fifth grade elementary school students a variety of artistic disciplines (i.e. theatre, dance, art, and creative writing). Both before and after the workshop, the students completed measures of self-worth and self-efficacy; these measures were used to identify changes in students from the beginning of the program to the end. Although we found no statistically significant differences between the pretest and the posttest on these measures, the qualitative results are promising. Students rated this experience as highly enjoyable, with no rate less than a seven out of ten, and a mean rate of 9.36 out of ten. Students also communicated their enjoyment through written answers about how the program made them feel and what they thought of the experience.

Honors College Research Project

Yes

GLI Capstone Project

yes

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© Copyright 2015 Danielle L. Barnes-Smith, Jordan Frotz, HanaSara Ito, Johannah Kohorst, and Emily Vascimini