RUcore: Rutgers University Community Repository
What’s important to me
Descriptive
TitleInfo
Title
What’s important to me
SubTitle
identifying at-risk and resilient students through narrative writing about personal values
Name
(type = personal)
NamePart
(type = family)
Stepney
NamePart
(type = given)
Cesalie T.
NamePart
(type = date)
1986-
DisplayForm
Cesalie Stepney
Role
RoleTerm
(authority = RULIB)
author
Name
(type = personal)
NamePart
(type = family)
Elias
NamePart
(type = given)
Maurice J
DisplayForm
Maurice J Elias
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm
(authority = RULIB)
chair
Name
(type = personal)
NamePart
(type = family)
Harris
NamePart
(type = given)
Sandra
DisplayForm
Sandra Harris
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm
(authority = RULIB)
internal member
Name
(type = personal)
NamePart
(type = family)
Epstein
NamePart
(type = given)
Yakov
DisplayForm
Yakov Epstein
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm
(authority = RULIB)
internal member
Name
(type = corporate)
NamePart
Rutgers University
Role
RoleTerm
(authority = RULIB)
degree grantor
Name
(type = corporate)
NamePart
Graduate School - New Brunswick
Role
RoleTerm
(authority = RULIB)
school
TypeOfResource
Text
Genre
(authority = marcgt)
theses
OriginInfo
DateCreated
(qualifier = exact)
2014
DateOther
(qualifier = exact);
(type = degree)
2014-05
Place
PlaceTerm
(type = code)
xx
Language
LanguageTerm
(authority = ISO639-2b);
(type = code)
eng
Abstract
(type = abstract)
There is a growing body of research examining the relationship between expressive writing and psychological stress and well-being. The current study sought to explore whether aspects of elementary students’ writing about their personal values could predict if students were considered more at-risk or more resilient. This study used data from 176 5th grade students (Mean age = 10.95, 63.63% Female, 79.54% African American, 20.46% Hispanic) from a low-income, urban district in New Jersey who participated in a Laws of Life essay writing program as part of a larger school-based social-emotional learning intervention; these essays were analyzed using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software, as well as qualitative coding by trained independent coders. Students and their teachers rated students on a number of dimensions of resiliency and risk before and after essay writing (i.e., self-concept, social skills, internalizing, externalizing and hyperactivity behaviors), which were then used to predict at-risk and resilient cluster groups using a Two-Step Cluster Analysis procedure. Discriminant Factor Analysis (DFA) results revealed that the percentage of LIWC-computed death-related words in the essays predicted at-risk group membership for Male students and Hispanic students. The percentage of social process related words in the essays was also a significant predictor for Hispanic students, with more social process words predicting membership in the more resilient group. These DFA results were replicated using post-intervention data, with two additions: the percentage of death-related words also predicted at-risk status for the African American subsample and family-related words predicted at-risk status for Male students. In addition, individuals who wrote about a stressful life event, about one third of students, were more likely to be in the at-risk group post-intervention. Overall, these results suggest that Laws of Life essay characteristics, particularly the percentage of death, social processes, and family-related words, can be predictive of at-risk or resiliency status in children from high-risk communities. Further, the implications of students spontaneously mentioning stressful life events when writing about their personal values and identity are discussed.
Subject
(authority = RUETD)
Topic
Psychology
Subject
(authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Youth with social disabilities--New Jersey
Subject
(authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Graphotherapy--New Jersey
Subject
(authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
City children--New Jersey
Subject
(authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Children--Writing
RelatedItem
(type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier
(type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_5340
PhysicalDescription
Form
(authority = gmd)
electronic resource
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
vi, 45 p. : ill.
Note
(type = degree)
M.S.
Note
(type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Note
(type = statement of responsibility)
by Cesalie T. Stepney
Subject
(authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Narration (Rhetoric)
RelatedItem
(type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier
(type = local)
rucore19991600001
Location
PhysicalLocation
(authority = marcorg);
(displayLabel = Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
NjNbRU
Identifier
(type = doi)
doi:10.7282/T3GQ6W2M
Genre
(authority = ExL-Esploro)
ETD graduate
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Rights
RightsDeclaration
(ID = rulibRdec0006)
The author owns the copyright to this work.
RightsHolder
(type = personal)
Name
FamilyName
Stepney
GivenName
Cesalie
Role
Copyright Holder
RightsEvent
Type
Permission or license
DateTime
(encoding = w3cdtf);
(qualifier = exact);
(point = start)
2014-02-28 20:50:42
AssociatedEntity
Name
Cesalie Stepney
Role
Copyright holder
Affiliation
Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
AssociatedObject
Type
License
Name
Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.
Copyright
Status
Copyright protected
Availability
Status
Open
Reason
Permission or license
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Technical
RULTechMD
(ID = TECHNICAL1)
ContentModel
ETD
OperatingSystem
(VERSION = 5.1)
windows xp
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Statistical Profile