This article presents findings from a meta-analysis of 213 school-based, universal social and emotional learning (SEL) programs involving 270,034 kindergarten through high school students. Compared to controls, SEL participants demonstrated significantly improved social and emotional skills, attitudes, behavior, and academic performance that reflected an 11-percentile-point gain in achievement. School teaching staff successfully conducted SEL programs. The use of 4 recommended practices for developing skills and the presence of implementation problems moderated program outcomes. The findings add to the growing empirical evidence regarding the positive impact of SEL programs. Policy makers, educators, and the public can contribute to healthy development of children by supporting the incorporation of evidence-based SEL programming into standard educational practice.

http://explorefhp.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Durlak-Weissberg-Child-Development-Meta-Analysis.pdf

The Impact of Enhancing Students’ Social and Emotional Learning: A Meta‐Analysis of School‐Based Universal Interventions

Using 6 longitudinal data sets, the authors estimate links between three key elements of school readiness--school-entry academic, attention, and socioemotional skills--and later school reading and math achievement In an effort to isolate the effects of these school-entry skills, the authors ensured that most of their regression models control for cognitive, attention, and socioemotional skills measured prior to school entry, as well as a host of family background measures Across all 6 studies, the strongest predictors of later achievement are school-entry math, reading, and attention skills A meta-analysis of the results shows that early math skills have the greatest predictive power, followed by reading and then attention skills By contrast, measures of socioemotional behaviors, including internalizing and externalizing problems and social skills, were generally insignificant predictors of later academic performance, even among children with relatively high levels of problem behavior Patterns of association were similar for boys and girls and for children from high and low socioeconomic backgrounds

/pdf/school-readiness-and-later-achievement-3b0grfzdeu.pdf

School Readiness and Later Achievement

The authors propose a model of the prosocial classroom that highlights the importance of teachers’ social and emotional competence (SEC) and wellbeing in the development and maintenance of supportive teacher–student relationships, effective classroom management, and successful social and emotional learning program implementation. This model proposes that these factors contribute to creating a classroom climate that is more conducive to learning and that promotes positive developmental outcomes among students. Furthermore, this article reviews current research suggesting a relationship between SEC and teacher burnout and reviews intervention efforts to support teachers’ SEC through stress reduction and mindfulness programs. Finally, the authors propose a research agenda to address the potential efficacy of intervention strategies designed to promote teacher SEC and improved learning outcomes for students.

/pdf/the-prosocial-classroom-teacher-social-and-emotional-25zmo7aytk.pdf

The Prosocial Classroom: Teacher Social and Emotional Competence in Relation to Student and Classroom Outcomes:

Social relationships—both quantity and quality—affect mental health, health behavior, physical health, and mortality risk. Sociologists have played a central role in establishing the link between social relationships and health outcomes, identifying explanations for this link, and discovering social variation (e.g., by gender and race) at the population level. Studies show that social relationships have short- and long-term effects on health, for better and for worse, and that these effects emerge in childhood and cascade throughout life to foster cumulative advantage or disadvantage in health. This article describes key research themes in the study of social relationships and health, and it highlights policy implications suggested by this research.

/pdf/social-relationships-and-health-a-flashpoint-for-health-5acz10lskr.pdf

Social Relationships and Health: A Flashpoint for Health Policy

This report builds on a highly valued predecessor, the 1994 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report entitled Reducing Risks for Mental Disorders: Frontiers for Preventive Intervention Research. That report provided the basis for understanding prevention science, elucidating its then-existing research base, and contemplating where it should go in the future. This report documents that an increasing number of mental, emotional, and behavioral problems in young people are in fact preventable. The proverbial ounce of prevention will indeed be worth a pound of cure: effectively applying the evidence-based prevention interventions at hand could potentially save billions of dollars in associated costs by avoiding or tempering these disorders in many individuals. Furthermore, devoting significantly greater resources to research on even more effective prevention and promotion efforts, and then reliably implementing the findings of such research, could substantially diminish the human and economic toll.

Preventing Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders Among Young People: Progress and Possibilities

A comprehensive mission for schools is to educate students to be knowledgeable, responsible, socially skilled, healthy, caring, and contributing citizens. This mission is supported by the growing number of school-based prevention and youth development programs. Yet, the current impact of these programs is limited because of insufficient coordination with other components of school operations and inattention to implementation and evaluation factors necessary for strong program impact and sustainability. Widespread implementation of beneficial prevention programming requires further development of research-based, comprehensive school reform models that improve social, health, and academic outcomes; educational policies that demand accountability for fostering children's full development; professional development that prepares and supports educators to implement programs effectively; and systematic monitoring and evaluation to guide school improvement.

http://selted.weebly.com/uploads/1/8/6/4/18649540/greenberg_et_al._2003.pdf

Enhancing school-based prevention and youth development through coordinated social, emotional, and academic learning.

Two challenges for researchers of school-based action are to identify effective approaches to prevent problem behaviors and promote positive youth development and to support the widespread implementation and sustainability of evidence-based preschool through high school practice. In this article, the authors describe integrated social, emotional, and academic education as a useful framework for conceptualizing school-based positive youth development programming. We then review findings from selected exemplary studies and research syntheses to support this perspective. We conclude with guidelines for implementing integrated social, emotional, and academic learning programs.

What Works in School-Based Social and Emotional Learning Programs for Positive Youth Development

We monitored trends in HIV risk behaviors and seroconversion among out-of-treatment injection drug users (IDUs) receiving street-based outreach intervention. Beginning in 1988, 641 HIV-seronegative IDUs were recruited by targeted sampling methods to reflect broader IDU populations and were followed for 4 years (1988-1992). All were active injectors not in treatment when recruited. Cohort members were targets of HIV-prevention outreach. The intervention was guided by the Indigenous Leader Outreach Model: Exaddicts deliver HIV-prevention services targeting IDU social networks in community settings. Primary outcome measures were HIV seroconversion and HIV risk behaviors. Observed incidence of HIV infection decreased, from 8.4 to 2.4 per 100 person-years. Prevalence of drug risk behaviors also decreased, from 100 to 14%. Seroconversion was associated with injection risk behavior [risk ratio (RR) = 9.8]. Sex risk behavior also decreased, but less dramatically, from 71 to 45%. Out-of-treatment IDUs in Chicago have reduced their rates of new HIV infection by reducing their injection risk behavior. New infections were strongly associated with injection risk behavior but not with sex risk behavior.

Mary Utne O'Brien

Papers

Enhancing school-based prevention and youth development through coordinated social, emotional, and academic learning.

What Works in School-Based Social and Emotional Learning Programs for Positive Youth Development

Risk behavior and HIV seroincidence among out-of-treatment injection drug users: a four-year prospective study.

Sustainable Schoolwide Social and Emotional Learning (SEL): Implementation Guide and Toolkit.

Social and emotional learning for successful school performance.