Effectiveness of school‐based universal social, emotional, and behavioral programs: Do they enhance students’ development in the area of skill, behavior, and adjustment?

By M. Sklad, R. Diekstra, M. Ritter, J. Ben, C. Gravesteijn. 2012

642 citations recorded by the source corpus.

To answer the question of whether teaching social and emotional skills to foster social–emotional development can help schools extend their role beyond the transfer of knowledge, the authors conducted a meta-analytical review of 75 recently published studies that reported the effects of universal, school-based social, emotional, and/or behavioral (SEB) programs. The analyzed interventions had a variety of intended outcomes, but the increase in social skills and decrease in antisocial behavior were most often reported. Although considerable differences in efficacy exist, the analysis demonstrated that overall beneficial effects on all seven major categories of outcomes occurred: social skills, antisocial behavior, substance abuse, positive self-image, academic achievement, mental health, and prosocial behavior. Generally, immediate effects were stronger than delayed effects, with the exception of substance abuse, which showed a sleeper effect. Limitations of the analysis and moderators of the effectiveness of SEB programs in schools are discussed in the final section of the article.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Education, Safety Research

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9c99be118d4afe698172e408aa97b67b7bf00d94

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Clinical Psychology

In Education

In Safety Research

Citations in the corpus

The Economic Value of Social and Emotional Learning (2015, methodology): “First, Responsive Classroom is listed in the two authoritative reviews of SEL interventions (Durlak et al., 2011; Sklad et al., 2012).”
Advancing the Science and Practice of Social and Emotional Learning (2016, result): “programs (Sklad et al., 2012), provided additional evidence consistent with Durlak et al.”
A Meta-Analytic Review of Preschool Social and Emotional Learning Interventions (2020, result): “Other meta-analyses have showed similar gains in social and emotional skills, academic performance, and behavior (Corcoran et al., 2018; Sklad et al., 2012).”
Social and Emotional Learning: A Principled Science of Human Development in Context (2019, background): “Sklad et al. (2012) reviewed 75 more recent studies of school-based SEL programs and found that there were both immediateand long-term benefits to participants.”
Effectiveness of interventions adopting a whole school approach to enhancing social and emotional development: a meta-analysis (2018, background): “In line with other meta-analyses in this field (Payton et al. 2008; Sklad et al. 2012, four outcome categories were defined: i. Social and emotional adjustment: this category included measurements of social or emotional skills, and attitudes toward self and others. ii.”
Promoting Positive Youth Development Through School-Based Social and Emotional Learning Interventions: A Meta-Analysis of Follow-Up Effects. (2017, background): “School-based SEL represents an important set of approaches to promote the positive academic growth, behavior, and development of youth (Dur-lak et al., 2011, 2015; Sklad et al., 2012).”