Systemic social and emotional learning: Promoting educational success for all preschool to high school students.

Social and emotional learning (SEL) has become more central to education because of demand from educators, parents, students, and business leaders alongside rigorous research showing broad, positive impacts for students and adults. However, all approaches to SEL are not equal. Systemic SEL is an approach to create equitable learning conditions that actively involve all Pre-K to Grade 12 students in learning and practicing social, emotional, and academic competencies.

Promoting Positive Youth Development Through School-Based Social and Emotional Learning Interventions: A Meta-Analysis of Follow-Up Effects.

This meta-analysis reviewed 82 school-based, universal social and emotional learning (SEL) interventions involving 97,406 kindergarten to high school students (M  = 11.09 years; mean percent low socioeconomic status = 41.1; mean percent students of color = 45.

Social-Emotional Competence: An Essential Factor for Promoting Positive Adjustment and Reducing Risk in School Children.

Social-emotional competence is a critical factor to target with universal preventive interventions that are conducted in schools because the construct (a) associates with social, behavioral, and academic outcomes that are important for healthy development; (b) predicts important life outcomes in adulthood; (c) can be improved with feasible and cost-effective interventions; and (d) plays a critical role in the behavior change process. This article reviews this research and what is known about effective intervention approaches. Based on that, an intervention model is proposed for how schools should enhance the social and emotional learning of students in order to promote resilience.

Cluster-randomized trial demonstrating impact on academic achievement of elementary social-emotional learning.

This study evaluated the results of a social and emotional learning (SEL) program on academic achievement among students attending a large, urban, high-risk school district. Using a cluster-randomized design, 24 elementary schools were assigned to receive either the intervention curriculum (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies, or PATHS) or a curriculum that delivered few if any SEL topics (i.e.

Quantitative evaluation of the onset and longevity of the action of incobotulinumtoxinA by skin displacement analysis in the treatment of glabellar frown lines.

Background: A quantitative numerical method for assessing the extent and duration of the inhibitory action of botulinum neurotoxin type A on mimetic muscles would potentially enable more detailed evaluation of the overall efficacy of this aesthetic treatment.

Aim: To evaluate skin displacement analysis (SDA) as a tool for assessment of the extent and duration of effect of incobotulinumtoxinA on mimetic muscles in the glabellar region in routine daily practice.

Methods: A total dose of 30 U incobotulinumtoxinA was injected into the fronto-glabellar region of 16 subjects.

Botulinum toxin type A treatment to the upper face: retrospective analysis of daily practice.

Background: Botulinum toxin type A treatment has been used for over 20 years to enhance the appearance of the face. There are several commercially available botulinum toxin type A products used in aesthetic clinical practice. The aim of this retrospective analysis was to compare the clinical efficacy of the most commonly used botulinum toxin type A preparations in daily practice.

The impact of enhancing students' social and emotional learning: a meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions.

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.

A meta-analysis of after-school programs that seek to promote personal and social skills in children and adolescents.

A meta-analysis of after-school programs that seek to enhance the personal and social skills of children and adolescents indicated that, compared to controls, participants demonstrated significant increases in their self-perceptions and bonding to school, positive social behaviors, school grades and levels of academic achievement, and significant reductions in problem behaviors. The presence of four recommended practices associated with previously effective skill training (SAFE: sequenced, active, focused, and explicit) moderated several program outcomes. One important implication of current findings is that ASPs should contain components to foster the personal and social skills of youth because youth can benefit in multiple ways if these components are offered.

Effects of positive youth development programs on school, family, and community systems.

A review of efforts at social system change in 526 universal competence-promotion outcome studies indicated that 64% of the interventions attempted some type of microsystemic or mesosystemic change involving schools, families, or community-based organizations in an attempt to foster developmental competencies in children and adolescents. Only 24% of the reports provided quantitative data on the change that occurred in targeted systems. However, studies containing the necessary information produced several mean effect sizes that were statistically significant, and ranged from modest to large in magnitude.

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

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.

Prevention that works for children and youth. An introduction.

The widespread implementation of effective prevention programs for children and youth is a sound investment in society's future. The most beneficial preventive interventions for young people involve coordinated, systemic efforts to enhance their social-emotional competence and health. The articles in this special issue propose standards for empirically supported programming worthy of dissemination and steps to integrate prevention science with practice.

The protective influence of parents and peers in violence avoidance among African-American youth.

Objectives: This study attempted to provide further insight into the roles of parents and peers as they influence youth involvement with violence. Specifically, this paper considers whether parents who are close to their children have children who affiliate with prosocial friends who may in turn serve as a buffer against violence. This study also considers how parent and peer influences may change as youth transition to adolescence.

Improving the lives of millions of school children.

R. Fulghum (1993) contended that all he really needed to know, he learned in kindergarten. This finding does not generalize to predoctoral-postdoctoral education and school-based action researchers.

Primary prevention: educational approaches to enhance social and emotional learning.

The 1995 publication of Goleman's Emotional Intelligence triggered a revolution in mental health promotion. Goleman's examination of Gardner's work on multiple intelligences and current brain research, and review of successful programs that promoted emotional health, revealed a common objective among those working to prevent specific problem behaviors: producing knowledgeable, responsible, nonviolent, and caring individuals. Advances in research and field experiences confirm that school-based programs that promote social and emotional learning (SEL) in children can be powerful in accomplishing these goals.

Social and emotional learning: a framework for promoting mental health and reducing risk behavior in children and youth.

Many programs have been developed to help schools enhance students' health and reduce the prevalence of drug use, violence, and high-risk sexual behaviors. How should educators choose among these? This article describes selection criteria based on theory, research, and best educational practice that identify key social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies and program features. The SEL competencies for students include 17 skills and attitudes organized into four groups: awareness of self and others; positive attitudes and values; responsible decision making; and social interaction skills.

A longitudinal assessment of teacher perceptions of parent involvement in children's education and school performance.

This study examines the ways in which parental involvement in children's education changes over time and how it relates to children's social and academic functioning in school. Teachers provided information on parent involvement and school performance for 1,205 urban, kindergarten through third-grade children for 3 consecutive years. They rated the following four dimensions of parent involvement: frequency of parent-teacher contact, quality of the parent-teacher interactions, participation in educational activities at home, and participation in school activities.

Age, individuality, and context as factors in sustained visual attention during the preschool years.

In 3 studies, the authors explored age changes and individual differences in preschool children's sustained attention in several different contexts--watching a videotape, playing with toys, and performing reaction time tasks. Various indexes of attention increased from 30 months to 54 months, whereas inattention decreased. Changes tended to occur earlier for play and television viewing than for the reaction time task.

High-risk sexual behavior among young urban students.

A substantial number of adolescents, including many as young as 11, engage in high-risk sexual behavior. In a 1992 survey of 2,248 urban students in grades 6, 8 and 10, 45% of respondents, including 28% of sixth graders, were sexually active; the majority of sexually experienced students had had two or more partners. Among sexually active respondents, however, the level of condom use at last intercourse was higher than expected (71%).

No safe haven: a study of violence exposure in an urban community.

Objective: To examine levels of violence exposure and reports of feeling unsafe in relation to psychological and behavioral characteristics for a general population sample of youths from an urban setting.

Method: A comprehensive survey of high-risk behaviors, attitudes, indicators of adaptive behavior, and daily involvements was administered to a sample of 2,248 students in the 6th, 8th, and 10th grades in an urban public school system.

Results: More than 40% of the youths surveyed reported exposure to a shooting or stabbing in the past year, and 74% reported feeling unsafe in one or more common environmental contexts.

Involvement in multiple problem behaviors of young urban adolescents.

This paper examines four areas of "problem behavior" (i.e., delinquency, high-risk sexual behavior, school failure, and substance abuse) in a sample of urban sixth and seventh grade students.

A conceptual framework for context-sensitive prevention programming: A symbolic interactionist perspective.

The rate of future progress in the field of prevention is dependent, in part, on the adoption of an overarching conceptual framework which will provide a sound theoretical basis for the development of multilevel, context-sensitive prevention programming. Two broad approaches to the study of culture (cultural adaptationism and symbolic interactionism) are examined and compared regarding their ability to provide such a framework. It is argued that symbolic interactionism provides a resolution to three issues which have proven problematic for cultural adaptationism: the issues of locus, scope, and cultural integrity.

Prediction of early social and academic adjustment of children from the inner city.

Investigated predictors of five measures of early school adjustment for an ethnically diverse cohort of 683 inner-city kindergartners and first graders. Data from 2 consecutive years were collected from teachers, school records, and children. A multiple-regression preduction model significantly explained children's competence behavior, problem behavior, reading achievement, mathematics achievement, and school absences.

Social competence promotion with inner-city and suburban young adolescents: effects on social adjustment and alcohol use.

This study assessed the impact of school-based social competence training on skills, social adjustment, and self-reported substance use of 282 sixth and seventh graders. Training emphasized broad-based competence promotion in conjunction with domain-specific application to substance abuse prevention. The 20-session program comprised six units: stress management, self-esteem, problem solving, substances and health information, assertiveness, and social networks.