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Review
. 2023 Dec 19;12(1):3.
doi: 10.3390/healthcare12010003.

Effectiveness of Self-Affirmation Interventions in Educational Settings: A Meta-Analysis

Carolang Escobar-Soler  1   2 , Raúl Berrios  3 , Gabriel Peñaloza-Díaz  1 , Carlos Melis-Rivera  1 , Alejandra Caqueo-Urízar  4 , Felipe Ponce-Correa  1 , Jerome Flores  2
Affiliations
Review

Effectiveness of Self-Affirmation Interventions in Educational Settings: A Meta-Analysis

Carolang Escobar-Soler et al. Healthcare (Basel). .

Abstract

School and university can be stressful contexts that can become an important source of identity threats when social prejudices or stereotypes come into play. Self-affirmation interventions are key strategies for mitigating the negative consequences of identity threat. This meta-analysis aims to provide an overview of the effectiveness of self-affirmation interventions in educational settings. A peer-reviewed article search was conducted in January 2023. A total of 144 experimental studies that tested the effect of self-affirmation interventions in educational contexts among high school and university students from different social and cultural backgrounds were considered. The average effect of self-affirmation interventions was of low magnitude (dIG+ = 0.41, z = 16.01, p < 0.00), with a 95% confidence interval whose values tended to lie between 0.36 and 0.45 (SE = 0.0253). In addition, moderators such as identity threat, participants' age, and intervention procedure were found. Through a meta-analysis of the impact of self-affirmation interventions in educational contexts, this study suggests that interventions are effective, resulting in a small mean effect size. Thus, self-affirmation interventions can be considered useful, brief, and inexpensive strategies to improve general well-being and performance in educational settings.

Keywords: college students; education; effects; intervention; schoolchildren; self-affirmation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of the search strategy and selection of articles and studies.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Summary of methodological quality of selected articles.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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