Expected and unexpected long-term effects of values affirmation in school

Background

An earlier study in a school in England found that a series of brief values affirmation writing exercises, performed over the course of a school year by students aged 11–14, increased the mathematics attainment of students of low socioeconomic status (SES).

Aims

This pre-registered follow-up of the original study aims to investigate the long-term effects of values affirmation on low-SES students' attainment.

Sample

The sample consisted of all students in the analytical sample of the original study who remained at the school and for whom the necessary data were available, N = 409 (95 low-SES).

Methods

The students' results in high-stakes national standardized assessments at age 16, taken two to four years after the affirmation, were analysed.

Results

The evidence did not support the pre-registered hypotheses that values affirmation would raise the attainment of low-SES students in mathematics and English. However, exploratory analyses suggested that for low-SES students in two of the three-year groups, the intervention increased Attainment 8, a broad policy-relevant measure of academic attainment, and increased the attainment of boys in English (in particular English Literature) but reduced the corresponding attainment of girls.

Conclusions

The results suggest that the benefits of values affirmation can differ by student cohort and by school subject and that they might be time-limited in some circumstances. This suggests a set of hypotheses that future research could test in order to advance understanding of when values affirmation is, and is not, successful for school students over a sustained period.