Chapter 1: Social and Emotional Learning 13
Improving social and emotional skills has a positive influence on children and adolescents’ attitudes, behaviors, and performance (Lagerspetz et al., 1988). A review of 317 studies involving over 300,000 children and adolescents found that social and emotional learning programs were beneficial for children and young people aged five through eighteen from urban and rural communities with or without behavioral or emotional problems (Crick & Bigbee, 1998). Social and emotional learning improved participants’ social and emotional skills, coping skills, and resistance to negative peer pressure; resulted in more positive attitudes toward themselves, others, and their schools; improved social behaviors and cooperation with others; decreased risky, antisocial, and aggressive behaviors; and decreased emotional problems, including anxiety and depression (Crick & Bigbee, 1998).
Social and emotional learning programs can also improve academic success, with students demonstrating improved grades and test scores, more positive attitudes toward school, and better school attendance, as well as heightened trust and respect for teachers, improved management of school-related stress, improved participation in class, and fewer suspensions (Lagerspetz et al., 1988; Smith, Talamelli, Cowie, Naylor, & Chauhan, 2004). These programs also show evidence of long-term effectiveness, especially if social skills are developed and consolidated across several years (Smith, Talamelli, et al., 2004). Importantly, the positive effects of social and emotional learning can extend beyond the individual with improvements in students’ social and emotional skills likely to have a positive influence on their schools, families, and broader communities (Galen & Underwood, 1997).
Social and Emotional Learning in the School Curriculum To make ethical, constructive choices about personal and social behavior, children and young people need to show understanding about themselves and be able to take the perspective of and empathize with others. Being empathetic means being able to identify with, understand, and care about how another person feels in a certain situation. This is especially important for students to reduce the bullying perpetration and to help those who are victimized. Many students have not yet had the life experiences to enable them to directly understand or relate to what another person might think, feel, or believe in a certain situation. Students benefit from the explicit teaching and learning activities that interrogate the different perspectives of individuals and groups involved in the social context and the decision-making processes they may apply to different social situations, such as preventing or responding to bullying. The Friendly Schools Plus resource uses stories and literature, cooperative games, role plays, problem solving, and reflective activities to encourage students to identify and understand their emotions, consider the perspectives of others, negotiate tricky situations, and make well-reasoned decisions (Dooley, Cross, Hearn, & Treyvaud, 2009). This comprehensive resource provides sequential, interactive, and engaging learning activities to explicitly build social and emotional competencies in students that are important for each major developmental stage from primary to secondary school.
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Other research also suggests that social and emotional learning programs improve health outcomes for young people, including a decreased risk of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit substance use problems; mental health problems and suicide; and sexually transmitted diseases (Lagerspetz et al., 1988).
Section 1
Benefits of Social and Emotional Learning