The Effect of the Creative Drama Activities on Shyness, Self-Esteem, and Mental Well-Being

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of creative drama on the levels of shyness, self-esteem, and mental well-being in disadvantaged youth. This study was planned in a single group pretest-posttest design. 10 sessions of creative drama activities were held for each group by the drama-trained researchers approximately 120 minutes per week. The data of the study were collected by using the Personal Information Form, Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory, Warwick - Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale, and Shyness Scale. After transferring the data to the computer-aided SPSS package program, the data were evaluated using percentages, averages and significance tests. While the Self-Esteem Scale average score was 59.846 ± 14.986, the Shyness Scale average score was 61.153 ± 15.032 and Warwick-Edinburg Mental Well-Being Scale average score was 51.096 ± 8.661 before the intervention, it respectively changed to 71.923 ± 13.430, 49.230 ± 12.267 and 55.384 ± 9.088 and these differentiations in all three dimensions were found to be statistically significant. It was observed that 10-week creative drama sessions increased the level of self-esteem and mental well-being of disadvantaged students as well as decreasing the level of shyness. Keywords: youth, creative drama, self-esteem, shyness, mental stress