The Effectiveness of Teaching Religious Concepts on Self-Esteem of Elementary School Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of teaching religion-based spiritual concepts on self-esteem of elementary school students using a single-case experimental design with one month follow-up. After sampling from the community, three female primary school students who had poor or moderate self-esteem were selected in a targeted manner and received spiritual interventions for 13 sessions. In order to collect data, Alice Pop (1989) self-esteem questionnaire was used and data were analyzed by graphical analysis and determination of recovery rate. At the end of the interventions, the results of the recovery percentage of all three references indicated a significant increase in their scores in social and general self-esteem. Participants' scores increased in three dimensions of physical, educational, and family self-esteem after interventions, which indicates a positive effect of spirituality-centered education. Due to the greater resistance of these dimensions to teach, increasing the duration of interventions and involving family and school in the intervention process, a significant clinical development will be created in this dimension. Based on the results, it can be said that the teaching of religion-based spiritual concepts has influenced various aspects of self-esteem and significantly increased the social and general self-esteem of participants.

Keywords

• religious concepts
• self-esteem
• elementary school students