Presenter: Chiara Arpaia (Psychology)
Mentor: Marjorie Taylor
Oral Presentation
Panel A: “Enhancing Learning” Maple Room
Concurrent Session 1: 9:00-10:15am
Facilitator: Nedzer Erilus
This study explores the extent that teaching adolescent girls to sew their own clothes works as an intervention to improve self-esteem, optimism and self-efficacy. Twenty-six adolescent girls between the ages of 11 and 16 participated in a sewing class, held once per week for three hours over five weeks. Participants completed questionnaires on self-esteem, optimism, and self-efficacy. Self-esteem and optimism did not show a significant change. However, self-efficacy significantly increased over the five weeks of the sewing course (the Intervention Period) compared with the five weeks before the course (the Control Period). The intervention was run in the same manner as a community sewing class and the sample consisted of a variety of ethnicities, family situations and economic levels. Overall, the significant increase in self-efficacy, the high external validity of the study, the diversity of the sample, and the positive feedback on the course indicate that teaching adolescent girls how to sew in an intervention could potentially increase self-efficacy and, thereby, improve positive development.