A universal socio-emotional learning programme for child adjustment and peer relationships

Abstract

Universal SEL interventions have garnered increasing attention in educational systems worldwide, including in Portuguese schools, with short- and long-term benefits for students, such as social and emotional competencies, academic performance, and positive attitudes and behaviours. Using a pre- and post-test design, the current study aims to analyse the effects of a universal SEL intervention on elementary school students' emotional problems, behaviour problems, hyperactivity behaviours, peer relationship problems, and pro-social behaviours, as well as the quality of peer relationships in the classroom. Participants included 207 fourth-grade students (50.5% females) from Portuguese public elementary schools, aged between 8 and 13 years (Mage = 9.15, SD = 0.56). Measures comprised the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, completed by teachers, and the Classroom Peer Context Questionnaire, completed by students. Students attended a 32-week classroom-based universal SEL intervention during one school year. Results show a positive effect of the intervention on students' psychological adjustment (emotional symptoms, peer problems, hyperactivity), prosocial behaviours and mutual affection, even though small effect sizes were found. Male students reported higher peer problems and hyperactivity, which significantly improved at post intervention, while female students exhibited an increase in prosocial behaviours.

Headnote

Universal SEL interventions have garnered increasing attention in educational systems worldwide, including in Portuguese schools, with short- and long-term benefits for students, such as social and emotional competencies, academic performance, and positive attitudes and behaviours. Using a pre- and post-test design, the current study aims to analyse the effects of a universal SEL intervention on elementary school students' emotional problems, behaviour problems, hyperactivity behaviours, peer relationship problems, and pro-social behaviours, as well as the quality of peer relationships in the classroom. Participants included 207 fourth-grade students (50.5% females) from Portuguese public elementary schools, aged between 8 and 13 years (Mage = 9.15, SD = 0.56). Measures comprised the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, completed by teachers, and the Classroom Peer Context Questionnaire, completed by students. Students attended a 32-week classroom-based universal SEL intervention during one school year. Results show a positive effect of the intervention on students' psychological adjustment (emotional symptoms, peer problems, hyperactivity), prosocial behaviours and mutual affection, even though small effect sizes were found. Male students reported higher peer problems and hyperactivity, which significantly improved at post intervention, while female students exhibited an increase in prosocial behaviours.

Keywords: social and emotional learning, universal intervention, psychological adjustment, classroom peer relationships

First submission 28th September 2024; Accepted for publication 17th February 2025.

Introduction

Social-emotional Learning (SEL) interventions in schools are designed to enhance students' socio-emotional competencies, such as communicating and managing emotions more effectively, building their capacity for lifelong success (e.g., Sandilos et al., 2023). SEL has been growing steadily in education aiming at fostering the holistic development of students, including both cognitive and socioemotional competencies (e.g., Durlak et al., 2022). Despite universal SEL intervention benefits, mixed findings were found on differential effects based on gender (e.g., Coelho et al., 2021; Raimundo et al., 2024), underlining the need for studies that examine differential impacts of SEL interventions to enhance their efficacy and enable more tailored approaches (Wigelsworth et al., 2022).While SEL has also become increasingly important in Portuguese schools there are limited SEL interventions for elementary schools (e.g., Coelho et al, 2023; Raimundo et al., 2024). This study aims to analyse the impact of a universal SEL intervention entitled Calmamente - Aprendendo a Aprender-se (Calmly - Learning to Learn You-self). More specifically, it aims to evaluate changes in students' adjustment (e.g., emotional problems, behaviour problems, hyperactivity), and the quality of classroom peer relationships (i.e., cooperation, conflict, cohesion), including any gender differences.

Methodology

Participants included 207 fourth-graders (Mage = 9.15, SD = 0.56) from public elementary schools in the North of Portugal. Over 90% of were Portuguese and 50.5% were female. Forty percent of fathers and 26% of mothers had less than 9 years of schooling. The teacher version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997) was used to assesses the psychological adjustment of the participants, namely emotional problems, behaviour problems, hyperactivity behaviours, peer relationship problems, and prosocial behaviours. In our study, most of the subscales showed acceptable to good internal consistency (between .65 and .88 for all dimensions except for peer problems at T2 that had an alpha of .56). The Classroom Peer Context Questionnaire (Boor-Klip et al., 2016) assessed the participants' perceptions of interactions with peers in the classroom such as cooperation, conflict, cohesion, mutual affection, and isolation. Adequate internal consistency was found for all dimensions (between .61 to .80). Data was collected at pre-and post-intervention respectively. Intervention was implemented once a week (32 sessions) by a psychologist, who was trained in the programme and received supervision during the implementation.

Results

Table I shows statistically significant improvements in emotional problems, peer problems, hyperactivity, and prosocial behaviour at post intervention. No changes were observed in conduct problems. Mutual affection improved while cooperation, cohesion, and conflict decreased but no significant changes were observed in comfort or isolation.

An interactive effect of gender was found for peer problems, (F(l, 186) = 9.188,/? < .01, r\2 = .047), and hyperactivity, (F(l, 184) = 4.973, p = .027, r/2 = .026) with male students scoring significantly higher, and prosocial behaviour (F(l, 188) = 12.559,/? < .001, r/2 = .063) with significantly higher scores for female students. No interactive effects of gender were found for emotional symptoms, conduct problems, and all variables of peer relationships.

Positive moderate to strong correlations between baseline levels of both psychological adjustment and classroom peer relationships, and gains between the two time points in the same dimensions were found. Baseline level of peer problems showed a significant strong positive correlation with gains in hyperactivity (r = .668, p <.01), meaning that students who exhibit higher baseline levels of peer problems tend to display higher gains in hyperactivity. Baseline level of peer problems was negatively correlated with gains in prosocial behaviours (r =-.470, p <.01), suggesting that students with higher baseline levels of peer problems had fewer gains in prosocial behaviours.

Moderate positive relationships were observed between emotional symptoms, peer problems and prosocial behaviours, while conduct problems and hyperactivity demonstrated high positive correlations. These suggest that some students may not maintain their initial levels of emotional symptoms, peer problems, and prosocial behaviour after the intervention, and that those with higher levels of conduct problems and hyperactivity at pre-test tend to maintain this position in the group in the post-test (Table II). Moderate positive relationships were found between comfort, cooperation, conflict, cohesion and isolation in contrast to poor association with mutual affection, suggesting that some students may not maintain their initial levels of comfort, cooperation, conflict, cohesion, and isolation after the intervention.

Discussion

The study demonstrates positive effects of an SEL intervention on students' psychological adjustment and peer interactions. Emotional problems, peer problems, and hyperactivity decreased, while prosocial behaviours and mutual affection increased, aligning with previous research on SEL benefits (e.g., Coelho et al., 2023). However, no improvement was found in conduct problems. Baseline levels of students' conduct problems were already low; as such, it is not likely that the intervention would reduce baseline levels even more. Moreover, as some participants showed a higher rate of conduct problems after the intervention, we underline those universal interventions on their own may not adequately address the needs of students with more severe conduct issues, suggesting the need for additional targeted interventions. Unexpected results emerged regarding cooperation, conflict, and cohesion, which worsened after intervention. This might indicate increased emotional awareness or reflect the need for SEL practise in broader contexts, such as playgrounds and hallways, aligned with the whole-school approach (Wigelsworth et al., 2022). Gender variability in results also points to the need for more tailored interventions. For example, male students exhibited more peer problems and hyperactivity than females, but improved after the intervention; females showed higher improvement in prosocial behaviours than males.

The limitations of the study include the absence of a control group and a follow-up, reliance on self-reports, and not considering teacher-student relationships, which can moderate the impact of SE interventions. Results in the peer problems subscale must be interpreted cautiously due to poor internal consistency. Students' characteristics (e.g., cultural/social background, personal traits) need also to be considered in future research. This was a small-scale preliminary study, and future experimental research is needed to explore long-term, multi-year SEL interventions integrated across various schools and involving teachers, parents, and the community making use of randomised controlled trials (Durlak et al., 2022). Acknowledgements This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (UIDB/00050/2020; UIDP/05198/2020). References

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