The period of adolescence in humans varies per individual; however, Elpus, (2013), assigns students between the age of eleven to nineteen years old to this group (p. 10).  Developmentally, young humans go through great biological, social and psychological changes during adolescents. According to Sayler and McKee (n.d.), “young people are forming values and making decisions that will impact them for the rest of their life, which places additional responsibility on middle grade educators” (p. 1).  From a neurophysiological aspect, Anderson, , Anderson, Northam, Jacobs, and Catroppa (2001) explains that adolescents who take art education classes during secondary school develop higher level Executive Function skills than students who have not taken art classes (pp. 386-403).  Anderson, et al (2001) defines executive function skills as “an umbrella term, encompassing goal-directed behavior . . . . which impacts all aspects of behavior and social skills” (p. 386).  The adolescence brain also undergoes process of pruning and hard-wiring during secondary school.  Saylers and McKee define pruning as the time “when heavily used connections in the brain are strengthened and unused connections deteriorate;” this results in hard wiring when “the intellectual activities given the most time . . . are the strongest and influence learning for the rest of the student’s life” (p. 1).  However, “key to all developmental tasks-in fact,” according to Marcia, as quotes by Elpus (2013), “is the emergence of a stable identity” (p. 9).

To assist students in developing a stable identity, art educators should understand the basic factors of self-concept and how these factors can be used to strengthen student’s self-awareness of the world around them.  For the adolescence, general self-concept consists of an academic and non-academic self.  From kindergarten to grade twelve great emphasis is placed on establishing a student’s academic self-concept; yet, little emphasis is put on the non-academic self-concept despite its overall influence on the student’s future life.  According to Gecas (1982), self-concept is “the concept the individual has of himself as a physical, social, and spiritual or moral being” . . . and “the self-concept is conceptualized as a structure of various identities and attributes, and their evaluations, developed out of the individual’s reflexive, social and symbiotic activities” (pp 3-4).  Art education has long been associated with the discovery of one’s self and the sharing of emotions and experiences.  Sousa (2013) reveals that studies show that students involved in the arts “have a significantly higher self-concept than a standard student population” (p. 7).   The natural tendency for art programs to increase positive self-concept paired with the mental processes of “pruning” and “hard wiring” during adolescence suggests that adolescents are primed to be guided to self-awareness while enrolled in secondary school art programs.

Purkey (1988) states that “because self-concept does not appear to be instinctive, but a social product developed through experience, it possesses a relatively boundless potential for development and actualization” (p. 2).  From this vantage point, art educators can develop student’s awareness of self-concept through activities based on self-evaluations, identity-roles, and societal expectations.  Gecas (1982) says research shows “very little agreement between people’s self-perceptions and how they are actually viewed by others” (p.6).  Socially, adolescence desire acceptance, want to make their own decision’s, and often feel vulnerable.   Adolescent’s emotions conflict with secondary school social aspects because according to Sayler and McKee (n.d.)  the adolescence learner is “sensitive to criticism”, “observes flaws in others, but is slow to acknowledge own faults,” and “believes personal problems, experiences, and feelings are unique to self” (p. 5).  The socio-emotional conflict occurring in students as they ask, who am I, can be exploited by art educators by making abstract self-portraits, recognizing aspects of visual culture and environment, exploring stereotypes, producing socially conscious works of art, and sharing experiences and emotions in the art room.  Additionally, if art educators emphasize the importance of self-concept as it relates to empathy, resiliency, and happiness, students may go on to life a more fulfilling life.

Empathy can be defined as the ability to share and understand the feelings of others.  It is important to distinguish this from sympathy, which is the compassion or pity for the hardships of another.  Empathy requires sharing emotions and sympathy is reactionary to another’s situation.  Neuroscientific investigations have recently been able to explain empathy as it relates the brains mirror neuron system.  Jeffers (2009) describes the mirror neuron system as a series of specialized neurons that fire both when experiencing an act personally and when anticipating or watching a similar act being performed (pp 3-7).  For example, whether we are putting on our shoes, watching someone put on their shoes, or seeing a bare foot next to a shoe in a photograph, the same neurons associated with our actions are firing in our brains.   According to Jeffers (2009), “an art education of empathy that integrates caring, cognitive growth, and sociocultural awareness” would provide an “authentic and resonant kind of harmony—between self, object, and other” (p. 1).  Similarly, research conducted by Goldstein and Winner (2011) suggests that students who practice stepping into the shoes of others and learning to pay close attention to those around them may have increased empathy (p. 26).  Jeffers (2009) suggests that the mirror neurons allow human beings to appreciate, experience, and understand the emotions and sensations of others like facial expressions, gestures, intentions, and metaphors, even in artistic renderings (pp. 6-8).  Implications in the art classroom include student led discussion about artworks they make, student sharing of personally and/or culturally relevant items, material culture and creating works of art based on emotions.  Additionally, art educators should select images for presentations based on contextualized information which allows students to make emotional connections instead of images with aesthetic or historical significance.  Jeffers (2009) says that ‘empathy requires systematic reexamination, particularly on the part of art educators concerned with global imagery and its power to influence personal identity” (p. 2).

As adolescence seek acceptance in school and society they may undergo rejection, degradation and fall victim to bullying.  For students to successfully maintain a positive self-concept, educators should help students become more resilient.  Resiliency is the ability to recover from adversity.  According to The Center for the Developing Child (2018),

learning to cope with manageable threats is critical for the development of resilience . . . the capabilities that underlie resilience can be strengthened at any age . . . and many of these essential capabilities fall within the domains of executive function and self-regulation, which can be built through programs that focus explicitly on their development, beginning in early childhood.

Anderson, et al. (2011) describes goal-setting, planning, attention capacity, flexibility of thinking, and the ability to utilize feedback as specific executive function skills students need to develop to be successful (p. 386).  Levels of executive function have a direct influence on self -concept.  For example, if a student has poor planning skills and is never able to utilize feedback in a positive way, they may be deficient in the areas of academics and socioemotional self-concept.  In this circumstance, lack of resiliency can lead to low self-concept because the advice and support given by others is not handled correctly.

Leading by example is important when encouraging resiliency. Before establishing resiliency practices in the art room, art educators must first understand and practice resiliency themselves.  Adolescence fear failure, become easily discouraged, and often feel they are alone in life’s struggles.  Art educators should look to art therapy programs and practices for projects that build group trust and safe environments, which will allow students to feel comfortable sharing problems and concerns.  Mosek and Gilboa (2016) state that participation in dynamic group works can liberate individuals from emotional overload and that “sharing universal human experiences induces a feeling of belonging to a cohesive and meaningful group” (p. 2).  Additionally, Chambon (as cited by Mosek and Gilboa, 2016) explains that “emphasizing context related multiple points of view,” brings to light a “person’s identity and self-perceptions as a function of social construction that occurs during interactions with others” (p. 2).

Empathy and resiliency in relationship to self-concept focusses greatly on the student’s relationship to the world and others in connection to themselves.  Increasing a student’s self-concept can also lead to an increase in overall happiness with life.  Happiness can be described as a state of mind when a person’s appreciation of one’s own life is subjectively viewed as positive. Cohn, Fredrickson, Brown, Mikels, and Conway (2009), suggests that changes in resilience interferes in the relationship between positive emotions and life satisfaction, implying that people who develop resources for well-being are happier. Similarly, Morelli, Lieberman, and Zaki (2015) suggest that “the ability to share, celebrate, and enjoy others’ positive emotions – a phenomenon we term positive empathy – bolsters individual well‐being and relationship strength” (p. 1).  Art educators who establish self-concept practices in relation to empathy and resiliency are already working to increasing student’s happiness.

The growing popularity of positive psychology as a component of self-concept while in school is another way to increase student well-being.  According to the University of Pennsylvania’s, Authentic Happiness website (2018), happiness is measurable and buildable within the scope of positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment ( P.E.R.M.A.).  In a talk at the University of Michigan in 2017, Dr. Seligman, the founder of positive psychology said that “humans have no natural instinct to seek out the good” because, for most of our written history it was important for man to notice when things were wrong; as a result, most medical practices have been about remediating and alleviating, rather than educating and elevating.  Art educators can help adolescent students with improved happiness as it relates to self-concept by learning about and making P.E.R.M.A. interventions a permanent part of the curriculum.  As students become more empathetic, increase resiliency, grow executive functions, feel secure, and appreciated, positive emotions increase.   Engagement is another function of happiness easily assessable for art students.  Malchiodi (2011) describes engagement as “an experience of complete concentration and absorption” which comes in the deep engagement in an art process, similar to a persons experience with meditation or yoga (p. 1).  Helping students find success in the art room can also increase students’ sense of accomplishment as they master methods and materials of art making.  Furthermore, the Authentic Happiness website (2018) says that “creative thinking may enhance well-being by enhancing cognitive flexibility and problem-solving skills”, by “providing individuals with an important sense of mastery and agency”, and by “helping individuals perceive benefits after going through adversity.”  Interventions for creating meaning or purpose within a student, as it relates to self-concept, can be as established by assigning class-room jobs, making community art-works, and educating students about careers in art related to personal strengths.