The Relationship between University Students’ Writing Efficacy, Self-Esteem, and Academic Achievement in a Literary Therapeutic Writing Course

Objectives The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between university students' writing efficacy, self-esteem, and academic achievement in a literary therapeutic writing course. Through this, empirical evidence on the effectiveness of therapeutic writing in fostering a balance between cognitive-focused academic writing and emotional and affective domains in university writing education is sought. Methods To achieve this, a survey measuring pre- and post-writing efficacy and self-esteem was conducted among 30 students enrolled in an introductory course on literary therapy at a university in Gyeonggi-do. Throughout the semester, students engaged in a series of therapeutic writing activities, including reading literary works, participating in discussions, and maintaining reflective journals. Results The analysis of collected data revealed significant changes in both writing efficacy and self-esteem from pre-test to post-test. In the domain of writing efficacy, the expressive function showed the most statistically significant increase, while in the self-esteem domain, the categories of ‘assertiveness and anxiety’ and ‘leadership and popularity’ exhibited the highest statistically significant rise. Correlation analysis between these two variables and academic achievement showed consistently positive correlations, with the correlation between writing efficacy and academic achievement being higher than that between self-esteem and academic achievement. Conclusions Based on the qualitative and quantitative data analysis of this study, therapeutic writing activities have been shown to positively impact college students' writing efficacy and self-esteem, with a verified proportional relationship to academic achievement. The literary therapeutic writing course has effectively raised awareness of the importance of expressive skills acquisition among university students accustomed to receptive knowledge. By providing opportunities for reflection on various emotions through literary works and engaging in a series of writing activities and discussions to articulate one's emotions and thoughts concretely, the course fosters a positive perspective about oneself.