In my master's thesis, I studied self-concept in primary school students with reading and writing difficulties. I collected the self-concept data using a sample of 51 primary school students from fourth through ninth grade. The data was collected using the self-concept questionnaire SPA, which measures the social, domestic, physical, learning and emotional self-concept dimensions as well as self-concept in general. My goal was to define the differences in the self-concept dimensions between students with severe difficulties and students with mild difficulties. I also checked for gender differences. In addition, I tried to determine the differences in the self-concept dimensions between two groups of students with severe difficulties: between those students who have been diagnosed recently, and those students who have been diagnosed a long time ago. Using a questionnaire for counsellors, I wanted to find whether there were any differences between students with severe difficulties and students with mild difficulties in regard to other, self-concept-related characteristics. Most students in my sample exhibited a relatively high physical, social, and domestic self-concept. The learning self-concept was somewhat lower and the emotional self-concept the lowest. I have found that students with severe and students with mild reading and writing difficulties differ from one another in terms of emotional self-concept, which was significantly lower in students with severe difficulties. Furthermore, girls exhibited a lower emotional self-concept than boys. No self-concept differences were observed between those students with severe difficulties who have been diagnosed recently and those who have been diagnosed a long time ago. The group of students with severe difficulties differed from the group with mild difficulties in that they experienced negative emotions in school support courses less intensely. What is more, a few trends were observed in the study: students with severe difficulties exhibited a lower learning self-concept, they felt lonely in class, and they were faster in coming to terms with their reading and writing difficulties than students with mild difficulties. As far as any further research on this topic is concerned, I recommend the research be conducted with a larger study sample.
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