Social and Emotional Learning (SEL):
Key to Mental Health Promotion
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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
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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)
SEL Competencies
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Self-awareness
Self-management
Social awareness
Relationship skills
Responsible decision making
CASEL
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SEL Skills Assist Mental Health
Promotion:
Enhance capacity to take control
Foster individual resilience
Foster individual protective factors
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Results:
Compared to controls, SEL participants
demonstrated significant improvement in:
social and emotional skills,
attitudes, behavior,
academic performance that reflected an 11percentile-point gain in achievement.
Durlak, et al., 2011
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Key Findings
Classroom Teachers
Only when school staff conduct the
intervention does academic performance
improve significantly.
SEL Research Group/ CASEL Update, July 2010
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Key Findings
Program Implementation Quality
The benefits of effective SEL programs are
reduced when schools
do not adopt evidence-based programs
do not implement these programs with fidelity.
SEL Research Group/ CASEL Update, July 2010
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Such Commitment Requires
Policy Change
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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.
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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.
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One SEL Program: PATHS
Promoting Alternative THinking Strategies
Kusche & Greenberg, 1994.
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One SEL Program: PATHS
Promoting Alternative THinking Strategies
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
PATHS
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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
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PATHS
PATHS is rooted in developmental
neuroscience showing that:
Children experience intense emotions
before having the cognitive skills to
verbalize and control emotions.
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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
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PATHS
Promoting Alternative THinking Strategies
Elementary school-wide program
Kindergarten – Grade 6
Manualized curriculum
Delivered by trained teachers
two 20 minute lessons each week all year, every
year
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Summary of key PATHS research findings
Compared 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
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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
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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
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PATHS In Action
The SEAK Project:
PATHS In Canada
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Contact: Jean Hughes, RN, PhD,
Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada
jean.hughes@dal.ca
jean.hughes@dal.ca
Funded by the
SEL Research Group/ CASEL Update, July 2010
Public Health
Agency of Canada
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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. Noriyeh Rahbari – SEAK Research Coordinator
Our Project: SEAK
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Socially 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)
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SEAK – Objectives
4 Years
Increase the social and emotional competence of
children in project sites identified as having health
inequalities .
Strengthen community capacity to integrate mental
health promotion.
Increase community capacity for leadership,
collaboration and accountability in population
health innovation diffusion related to social and
emotional learning.
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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.
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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)
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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
Policy/Sustainability Issues Identified
by SEAK Project
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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
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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
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It really does take a village to raise a
healthy child!
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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: S41S47.
 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): 156168.
 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
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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