Student Self-Disclosure in Response to Teacher Verbal and Nonverbal Behavior

Abstract

Eighty elementary school children were assigned to one of four experimental conditions such that each condition contained ten high self-esteem subjects and ten subjects of low self-esteem. Each group participated in a 2S-minute vocabulary lesson in which the students were evaluated eight times by the teacher of the lesson. Teacher positive regard (defined as favorableness of the teacher’s verbal and nonverbal evaluative communications to the students) was varied across the four conditions. Following the treatments a questionnaire was used to assess the students’ willingness to self-disclose to the teacher. Statistical analyses of these data indicated that teacher positive regard was related to student willingness to self-disclose for male but not for female subjects. Congruence between verbal and nonverbal behaviors was not related to student willingness to self-disclose.