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Parents
and teachers, if you suspect that your child is
suffering, please contact your physician or a licensed professional for help.
Most importantly,
identifying the possible contributing factors or other disorders associated
with low self-esteem and treating that will inherently improve the level of
self-esteem.
Improving
self-esteem by improving performance in school.
Sapp, M. (1994). Cognitive-behavioral
counseling: Applications for African-American middle school students who are
academically at-risk. Journal of
Instructional Psychology, 21(2), 161-171.
 A study was
conducted involving at risk black middle school students to determine if
cognitive behavioral therapy would turn the students around and improve their
outlook in school and in themselves. Cognitive behavioral therapy was used to
help improve students study skills and become a better student. The authors
hoped to increase self-esteem and self-concept by establishing a better
academic foundation.
In this study, at
risk was defined as “students who are dropouts, students absent from school
for more than 20 days, pupils who are parents, pupils adjudicated delinquent,
students one or more years behind their age or grade level in reading or math
skills or in the number of credits earned” (Sapp, 1994, 163). Students were
given pretest and post on the following; “grade point average, number of days
absent, number of times tardy, the worry scale of the Test Anxiety Inventory,
the emotionality scale of the Test Anxiety Inventory, and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory Short Form” (Sapp,
1994, 163).
The counseling
aspect of the study included 15 weekly sessions for each student. The first
four session assisted students with school, the next four helped students
with anxiety and the last seven help students with self-concept and
self-esteem (Sapp, 1994).
The sessions
designed to help students with school consisted of how to schedule study
time, how to shape study behavior, and how to read for content. Session three
consisted cognitive behavior based in how to teach students a reading
process. The next session, students were taught how to take notes during
class and what to do once the notes that had been taken (Sapp, 1994). After
the students had been taught how to prepare for class and tests, the next
step in the therapy was to help students with anxiety related to taking the
test.
Through a
cognitive behavioral therapy format, students were taught relaxation to help
reduce anxiety. Students were taught how to identify and distinguish between
bodily tension and bodily relaxation. The first session taught students how
to tense and relax 19 muscle groups. The next session, the students were
taught how to less physical exertion and relax 6 muscle groups instead of 19.
The same technique was applied in session three, to reduce the six muscle
groups to three muscle groups. Session four was used to teach students how to
identify the muscle groups that were tense and then how to relax those
specific muscle groups (Sapp, 1994). Now that students were taught how to
identify and reduce tension, the next step was to help them with their
self-concept.
First, students were given an explanation of the
meaning of academic self-concept, which is how a student views their academic
achievements (Sapp, 1994). It was also
explained that how false beliefs may influence how a person “feels, thinks,
and behaves” (Sapp, 1994, p.167). How students view their experiences also
may influence the outcome of future experiences. The second session was a
brief synopsis and explanation of the seven beliefs that Ellis (1985, as
cited in Sapp, 1994) developed about internalizing thoughts that end in
self-defeating behaviors and a lessened self-concept (Sapp, 1994). During the
third session, students were given an explanation of negative interpretation
of events leads to self-defeating behaviors and self-hatred in the future.
Students were taught how these distortions are linked to academic
self-concept. The fourth session taught students about the A-B-C-D-E-F components
of Rational Emotive Counseling (Sapp, 1994). It was explained as A is the
attitude held, B is the belief about A, C is the emotional reaction, D is
disputing of irrational beliefs, E is the effects of A and F is the new
feelings about A. The fifth session was to teach students how to modify their
behavior and improve their academic self-concept. The sixth session taught students
restructuring through modeling. The last session was used to transfer the
concepts taught to be used in the real world (Sapp, 1994).
Results of this
study with the previously described therapies improved GPA scores, decreased
the number of days absent, number of days tardy, academic self-esteem, and
self-esteem for the students involved. At the four week follow-up, continued
improvement was shown across the board for all students (Sapp, 1994).
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