Assessment of High School Dance Students' Self-Esteem

Abstract The changes in self-esteem of dance students at eight high schools in comparison to controls at the same schools (dancers = 116; nondancers = 109) were investigated. Assessment was performed with the Culture-Free Self-Esteem Inventory (CFSEI),1 using a pretest-posttest format. All dancers were at the beginning level, and the nondancers or controls were enrolled in a variety of academic classes. Analysis showed no significant differences overall between dancers' and nondancers' CFSEI scores. Dancers' scores did improve significantly between pretest and posttest, while the scores of the nondancers did not. The dancers at one school improved significantly in social self-esteem in comparison to the nondancers at the same school. The level of significance used throughout was p < 0.05.