Violence in the environment of adolescent students: exploratory study and intervention through art education

Given that self-esteem problems constitute a risk factor for violence in adolescents, it is important to reinforce self-concept by strengthening protective factors. The aim of this work is to analyze whether an educational intervention focused on artistic awareness and expression based on artistic creation in the 20th and 21st century and in the current audiovisual context can help to generate protective factors against violence, such as critical consciousness and personal and social skills. This research uses a quantitative methodological approach based on a quasi -experimental pretest/posttest design, with a control group and an experimental group, being the dependent variable the self-concept and the independent variable the participation in the intervention. There was a non-random, intentional sample of 114 students in the 4th year of Compulsory Secondary Education organized into two groups: an experimental group, with 79 students, and a control group, with 35 students, taking as a selection criterion whether they chose the optional subject Visual and Audiovisual Arts Education. The participating students answered the LAEA questionnaire for the self-concept assessment before and after the intervention. Descriptive and comparative analyses were carried out using Student's t -tests for related measures. The results indicate that the intervention in arts education, using artistic manifestations with violence as the main theme, can modify the self-concept of adolescent girls in their corporal dimension.