Social and Emotional Learning (SEL): Key to Mental Health Promotion

1. Social and Emotional Learning (SEL): Key to Mental Health Promotion Jean Hughes, RN, PhD Professor, School of Nursing, Dalhousie University Lead Researcher – SEAK Project jean.hughes@dal.ca SEL Research Group/ CASEL Update, July 2010

2. Social and Emotional Learning …Key Life Skills • SEL includes the knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to: • understand and manage emotions, • set and achieve positive goals, • feel and show empathy for others, • establish and maintain positive relationships, • make responsible decisions. Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL)

3. SEL Competencies • Self-awareness • Self-management • Social awareness • Relationship skills • Responsible decision making CASEL

4. SEL Skills Assist Mental Health Promotion: • Enhance capacity to take control • Foster individual resilience • Foster individual protective factors

5. Why are SEL skills so important? Neuropsychological models argue that children’s neurological functioning affects: • the regulation of Strong emotions • Social function • Cognitive function • Behavioural function Riggs et al., 2006

6. Why are SEL skills so important? Research shows that environmental stress during childhood & adolescence has substantial effects on the operation of the neuroendocrine system and that these effects are likely to have long term impact on both cognitive and social-emotional functioning Shankoff, et al., 2009 in Bradshaw, et al., 2012

7. Why are SEL skills so important? • Fortunately brain function and its behavioral outcomes are malleable during these developmental stages. • Therefore interventions can assist when focused on: • THE ENVIRONMENT - Strengthen children’s social–ecologies (responsive parenting, caring & welcoming schools) • SEL SKILLS - support children’s development of Social & emotional regulation & coping abilities Bradshaw, et al., 2012

8. Do SEL interventions work… What does the evidence say? Meta-analysis: • 213 school-based, universal SEL programs • 270,034 students - kindergarten through high school. Durlak, et Al., 2011

9. Results: • Compared to controls, SEL participants demonstrated significant improvement in: • social and emotional skills, • attitudes, behavior, • academic performance that reflected an 11-percentile-point gain in achievement. Durlak, et al., 2011

10. Key Findings Classroom Teachers • Only when school staff conduct the intervention does academicperformance improve significantly. SEL Research Group/ CASEL Update, July 2010

11. Key Findings Program Implementation Quality • The benefits of effective SEL programs are reduced when schools • do not adopt evidence-based programs • do not implementthese programs with fidelity. SEL Research Group/ CASEL Update, July 2010

12. Key Findings Maximize the SEL and academic outcomes by combining: • support to school personnel who deliver evidence-based SEL programming • sound educational policy SEL Research Group/ CASEL Update, July 2010

13. Best Evidence re SEL Programs… Positive change in students’ developmental health and well-being are best achieved from programs that are: • Focused on social, cognitive and emotional processes • School based • Multi Year Conduct Problem Prevention Research. (2010); Jones, et al., 2011

14. Best Evidence re SEL Programs… • Universal (whole school approach) • builds common language (culture) • generalizes competence – to other courses, outside classroom/school SEL Research Group/ CASEL Update, July 2010

15. Best Evidence re SEL Programs Cont’d. • Provide: • a manualized curriculum • opportunities for practice • Teacher/staff training • On-going mentoring/support • School Principal – program champion SEL Research Group/ CASEL Update, July 2010

16. Such Commitment Requires Policy Change

17. What type of policy is critical to sustain SEL? • Policies at many different levels (federal, provincial and local) play a key role in determining the priority that schools give to SEL • in teacher preparation – B. Ed. Programs • in the curriculum • in assessing students’ learning of the basic SEL competencies.

18. What type of policy is critical to sustain SEL? • Provincial learning standards • a primary driver of curriculum and assessment. • Provinces are increasingly including SEL in their standards… but need to ensure: • evidence-based programs • implementation fidelity.

19. One SEL Program: PATHS Promoting Alternative THinkingStrategies Kusche & Greenberg, 1994.

20. One SEL Program: PATHSPromoting Alternative THinkingStrategies Highly Ranked Evidence-Based SEL Program • Blueprints Project of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, University of Colorado • Model Program – highest possible rating • Only violence-prevention curriculum for elementary-age children to achieve this rating

21. PATHS • National Dropout Prevention Center/Network • Model Program – highest possible rating • Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) • Select Program – highest possible rating • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) • Best Practices Program

22. PATHS PATHS is rooted in developmental neuroscience showing that: • Children experience intense emotions before having the cognitive skills to verbalize and control emotions.

23. PATHS The PATHS curriculum is centered on the ABCD model of development (affective/behaviour/cognitive/dynamic) arguing that: • affect, vocabulary, and cognition interact to create social and emotional competence

24. PATHSPromoting Alternative THinkingStrategies • Elementary school-wide program • Kindergarten – Grade 6 • Manualized curriculum • Delivered by trained teachers • two 20 minute lessons each week all year, every year

25. Summary of key PATHS research findingsCompared to students from control schools, PATHS students show: Enhanced Emotional Understanding Enhanced Pro-social Behaviour • better understand social problems and create effective solutions • reduced aggression and disruptiveness SEL Research Group/ CASEL Update, July 2010

26. Summary of key PATHS research findings Enhanced Cognitive Skills and Academic Performance • effective problem solving, thinking and planning skills, and controlled impulses • academic engagement SEL Research Group/ CASEL Update, July 2010

27. Summary of key PATHS research findings Enhanced Mental Health • diminished internalizing problems such as anxiety and sadness • decreased externalizing problems such as conduct disorder, Oppositional Deviance Disorder or ODD, hyperactivity, frustration SEL Research Group/ CASEL Update, July 2010

28. PATHS In Action

29. The SEAK Project: PATHS In Canada Contact: Jean Hughes, RN, PhD, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada jean.hughes@dal.ca jean.hughes@dal.ca Funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada SEL Research Group/ CASEL Update, July 2010

30. Socially and Emotional Aware Kids: The SEAK Team • Canadian Mental Health Assoc. Nova Scotia Division • Gail Gardiner – Executive Director CMHA NS Division • Dalhousie University • Dr. Jean Hughes – Lead Researcher/ Principal Investigator • Dr. Sophie Jacques – Associate Researcher • Dr. NoriyehRahbari– SEAK Research Coordinator

31. Our Project: SEAKSocially and Emotionally Aware Kids Vision: Socially and Emotionally Competent Children in a Healthy Community. Approach: Based in Population Health & Health Promotion. Core Intervention: Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS)

32. SEAK – Objectives4 Years • Increase the social and emotional competence of children in project sites identified as having health inequalities . • Strengthen community capacityto integrate mental health promotion. • Increase community capacity for leadership, collaboration and accountability in population health innovation diffusion related to social and emotional learning.

33. SEAK – Objectives • Provide evidence to support the innovation and inform policy and service change over the long term. • Advance knowledge on population health innovation diffusion related to social and emotional learning.

34. Project Sites: Nova Scotia, Manitoba and Alberta • PATHS Intervention Schools • Receive the PATHS program (K- grade 6) • 5 community sites (approx. 350 students/site) • 2 sites delivering PATHS (4yrs, 13 yrs) • 3 new sites – phase in PATHS • Wait-List schools • Wait-listed for 1-2 years and then receive PATHS intervention • At least100 students/school • Total = 1700+ Students (numbers vary by site)

35. Outcome indicators: Chosen to enhance buy-in from key stakeholders • SEL • During PATHS • Long-term follow up after PATHS (SEL & Risk) • School • Climate • Discipline • Academics, school retention • Health - Obesity (BMI) • Parent mental well-being • Health service use • Economic Analysis (cost-benefit) of PATHS • Quantitative and qualitative measures

36. Policy/Sustainability Issues Identified by SEAK Project Curriculum • Needs to be formally integrated into curriculum of Educational authority (provincial, national level) Focus • Build core skills to explore emotions and relationships & focus on strengths rather than interventions to address specific problems (bullying/ suicide) that focus only on symptoms

37. Policy/Sustainability Issues Identified by SEAK Project Financial Collaborations • Government • multiple sectors- education, health, recreation, justice, etc. • Focus: cost-effectiveness • Corporate • Focus: PATHS builds desired employee skills • Not for Profit, Foundations • Focus: citizenship • Scale Up

38. It really does take a village to raise a healthy child!

39. References • Bradshaw, et al., Goldweber, A., Fishbein, D., Greenberg, M. (2012). Infusing developmental neuroscience into school-based prevention interventions: Implications and future directions. Journal of Adolescent Health, 51: S41-S47. • Conduct Problem Prevention Research. (2010). The effects of a multiyear universal social-emotional learning program: The role of student and school characteristics. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 78(2): 156-168. • Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) http://www.casel.org/social-and-emotional-learning • Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D. & Schellinger, K. B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions. Child Development, 82: 405–432. SEL Research Group/ CASEL Update, July 2010

40. References • Jones, S. Brown, J., Aber, J. L. (2011). Two-year impacts of a universal school-based social-emotional and literacy intervention: An experiment in translational developmental research. Child Development, 82(2): 533-554. • Kusche & Greenberg, 1994. The PATHS Curriculum. Seattle, WA: Developmental Research and Programs. • Riggs, N., Greenberg, M., Kusche, C., Pentz, M.A. (2006). The mediational role of neurocognition in the behavioural outcomes of a social-emotional prevention program in elementary school students: Effects of the PATHS curriculum. Prevention Science. 7(1): 91-102. • SEL Research Group (2010). The benefits of school-based social and emotional learning programs: Highlights from a forthcoming CASEL Report. Chicago: University of Illinois at Chicago SEL Research Group & The Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning. SEL Research Group/ CASEL Update, July 2010