Enhancing a Brief Writing Intervention to Combat Stereotype Threat among Middle-School Students

• Published in: Journal of educational psychology 2013-05, Vol.105 (2), p.427-435
• Main Authors: Bowen, Natasha K, Wegmann, Kate M, Webber, Kristina C
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Achievement Gap; African American Students; Biological and medical sciences; Educational psychology; Ethnic Groups; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Grade 6; Grade 7; Grade 8; Hispanic American Students; Human; Intervention; Language; Male; Middle School Students; Middle Schools; Production and perception of written language; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Pupil and student. Academic achievement and failure; School Based Intervention; Social Environment; Social Environments; Social Studies; Social studies education; Stereotyped Attitudes; Stereotypes; Threat; United States; Writing; Writing (Composition); Writing Assignments; Writing Exercises; Writing Instruction
• ISSN: 0022-0663; 1939-2176
• DOI: 10.1037/a0031177

Experimental research has demonstrated both the deleterious effects of negative stereotypes about ability on academic performance and the relative ease with which stereotypes can be countered in educational settings. The extent to which stereotypes contribute to the achievement gap between American students from dominant social and economic groups and students from other groups is not precisely known, but the potential of brief, inexpensive interventions targeting stereotype threat to reduce the gap is worthy of further examination. Although researchers studying brief social psychological interventions sometimes mention the importance of the context in which interventions occur, they have not included manipulations of the environment in their interventions. In the current experimental study, a test of the effects of a brief self-affirming writing assignment was conducted in a new sample of middle-school students (n = 132), and an environmental enhancement to the writing exercise was tested (n = 274). Consistent with previous findings, the self-affirming intervention reduced the average decline in Social Studies grades over the school year compared with a neutral condition (effect size, ES, 0.57). The combination of the affirming writing assignment with an environmental enhancement had superior effects to the writing assignment alone (ES 0.53). (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)