Drama education and personality change in students: A longitudinal study in school drama clubs

Drama education is thought to have an influence on the personality development of students who take part in theatre activities. However, drama is a complex process that consists of various elements and phases, such as warm-ups, acting, role work, feedback, and reflection phases. It is still unclear how each of these elements impacts the personality of participants in drama, that is, which effect each element may have on (changes in) the students’ personality. To explore this question, we conducted a longitudinal single-group study with fifty 10-15-year-old students in drama clubs at school. Our aim was to investigate the relationships between the drama elements acting, role work, reflection, feedback on acting and on language and the students’ personality traits motivation, creativity, openness, empathy and foreign-language anxiety. Our study revealed ten significant effects between these drama elements and personality attributes of students, which may serve to boost desirable or mitigate adverse personality states in drama classes. • Drama education influences student personality states, including their motivation, creativity, openness, empathy, and foreign-language anxiety. • A quantitative longitudinal study was conducted in 8 school-based drama clubs with 50 students across 11 sessions using a 20-item questionnaire. • Drama elements show 10 distinct effects on student personality states, with acting increasing motivation, role work enhancing empathy, reflection fostering creativity, acting feedback increasing foreign-language anxiety, and more. • Results highlight the potential of drama education to foster socio-emotional development in children and adolescents, and suggest its broader integration into school curricula to support student growth.