Values Affirmation Exercise in Indian Schools

The social psychological research on "self-affirmation" has demonstrated that brief psychological interventions can have a long-term impact by alleviating psychological threat, such as social identity threat. Among such interventions that have been tested repeatedly in the US is the values affirmation (VA) exercise, the experimental manipulation of having people write about core personal values (Cohen and Sherman 2014). The exercise is easy to implement and typically takes less than 30 minutes.

Empirical studies based on randomized control trials demonstrate that a set of relatively brief writing exercises repeated over the course of an academic year can be effective in countering social identity threats and thereby closing the learning gaps between the minority (such as African American and Latino students) and non-minority students in middle schools (e.g,. Cohen et al 2006). Similar effects have been observed for socioeconomically disadvantaged students and for female students (learning physics) at the college level.

We test whether similar effects can be replicated in the context of the potential social identity threats among school children within the Indian caste system. We randomly assign students in 7 to 10th grade into the treatment and control groups and implement a similar set of values affirmation exercises as conducted in the US. We monitor the administrative records of examination scores and attendance of the participating students before and after the intervention (up to two years) to measure the impact. In addition, in order to understand the mechanisms through which the psychological intervention works, we conduct baseline and follow-up surveys of the students and of their households to obtain information on student network patterns, household characteristics and learning environments of the students.

If found effective, similar psychological interventions may be considered as a potential policy option for improving learning achievements among children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds that is inexpensive and relatively easy to implement in developing country settings.