STRYV365 peak team and Brain agents: teacher perspectives on school impact of a trauma-informed, social-emotional learning approach for students facing adverse childhood experiences.

Introduction: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have a profound impact on children's and adolescents' academic performance and overall wellbeing. In contrast, positive childhood experiences help mitigate the negative effects of ACEs on health and wellbeing. Trauma-informed and social-emotional learning (SEL) programs in schools may address these impacts, with school staff playing a pivotal role in ensuring their success and influencing school outcomes. This study aimed to assess the strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement in the STRYV365 peak team and Brain Agents programs. The aim was to refine program implementation and determine the preliminary effects on students, teachers, and the broader school environment. Methods: To achieve this goal, four focus groups were conducted after the program concluded, involving 17 school leaders, administrators, and teachers from four urban schools serving students in fifth through ninth grades. The audio transcripts were professionally transcribed and analyzed by four co-authors using Dedoose for inductive coding, leading to the identification of major themes and subthemes. Results: Three key themes were identified from transcripts: school-wide perspectives of STRYV365 programs, strengths and impacts of STRVY365 programs, and suggestions for program improvement. School staff noted that the peak team was particularly engaging for students, helping them develop SEL skills and foster both peer-to-coach and peer-to-peer relationships. Additionally, the STRYV365 programs were found to enhance student-teacher relationships and staff relationships. Teachers expressed strong interest in taking a more active role in future programming. Discussion: Overall, this study highlights the importance of teacher and administrator involvement in maintaining consistent SEL activities for urban youth. The findings also suggest that short-term, 4-week SEL programs can have a positive effect on school culture, as well as on student-teacher relationships and teacher-teacher relationships.

A beautiful face is good when we're judged by others, a moral character is better.

Moral beauty, reflected in one's actions, and facial beauty both affect how we're judged. Here, we investigated how moral and facial beauty interactively affect social judgments and emotional responses, employing event-related brain potentials. Participants (all female) associated positive, neutral, or negative verbal information with faces scoring high or low on attractiveness and performed ratings of the faces as manipulation checks. In a separate test phase, the faces were presented again, and participants made valenced social judgments of the persons. Results show a dominance of moral beauty in valenced social judgments as well as ERPs related to reflexive and evaluative emotional responses (early posterior negativity, EPN, late positive potential, LPP), whereas facial attractiveness mattered little. In contrast, facial attractiveness affected visual processing (N170). Similarly, relatively shallow impressions of attractiveness and likability that require no knowledge about the person were influenced by both facial attractiveness and social-emotional information. This pattern of dominant effects of social-emotional information regardless of attractiveness shows that when it comes to our emotional responses and social judgments, moral beauty is what matters most, even in the face of physical beauty.

A Research-Practice Partnership to Develop the R-CITY Multi-Component, Equity-Focused Social-Emotional Learning Intervention.

There is growing interest in the integration of social-emotional learning (SEL) and equity approaches in schools, yet systematic research on how to blend these two frameworks is limited. In this article, we describe the process by which a research-practice partnership (RPP) collaborated to iteratively co-create a multi-component equity-focused SEL preventive intervention in the context of a politically charged landscape related to the 'dual pandemics' of racial injustice and COVID-19 in the early 2020s. We conducted a document review of informal data sources (e.g., meeting minutes, correspondence) and analyses of formal data sources (i.e., teacher interviews, student focus groups) to describe how we overcame challenges to form an RPP, to demonstrate our collaborative intervention development efforts, and to assess feedback on the contextual appropriateness of the intervention. We discuss lessons learned from our partnership efforts and reflect on future directions for RPP-driven work to advance equity-focused SEL in K-12 public schools.

Behavioral observation and assessment protocol for language and social-emotional development study in children aged 0-6: the Chinese baby connectome project.

BACKGROUND: The global rise in developmental delays underscores the critical need for a thorough understanding and timely interventions during early childhood. Addressing this issue, the Chinese Baby Connectome Project (CBCP)'s behavior branch is dedicated to examining language acquisition, social-emotional development, and environmental factors affecting Chinese children. The research framework is built around three primary objectives: developing a 0-6 Child Development Assessment Toolkit, implementing an Intelligent Coding System, and investigating environmental influence. METHODS: Utilizing an accelerated longitudinal design, the CBCP aims to enlist a minimum of 1000 typically developing Chinese children aged 0-6. The data collected in this branch constitutes parental questionnaires, behavioral assessments, and observational experiments to capture their developmental milestones and environmental influences holistically. The parental questionnaires will gauge children's developmental levels in language and social-emotional domains, alongside parental mental well-being, life events, parenting stress, parenting styles, and family relationships. Behavioral assessments will involve neurofunctional developmental evaluations using tools such as the Griffiths Development Scales and Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence. Additionally, the assessments will encompass measuring children's executive functions (e.g., Head-Toe-Knee-Shoulder), social cognitive abilities (e.g., theory of mind), and language development (e.g., Early Chinese Vocabulary Test). A series of behavior observation. experiments will be conducted targeting children of different age groups, focusing primarily on aspects such as behavioral inhibition, compliance, self-control, and social-emotional regulation. To achieve the objectives, established international questionnaires will be adapted to suit local contexts and devise customized metrics for evaluating children's language and social-emotional development; deep learning algorithms will be developed in the observational experiments to enable automated behavioral analysis; and statistical models will be built to factor in various environmental variables to comprehensively outline developmental trajectories and relationships. DISCUSSION: This study's integration of diverse assessments and AI technology will offer a detailed analysis of early childhood development in China, particularly in the realms of language acquisition and social-emotional skills. The development of a comprehensive assessment toolkit and coding system will enhance our ability to understand and support the development of Chinese children, contributing significantly to the field of early childhood development research. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study was registered with clinicaltrials.gov NCT05040542 on September 10, 2021.

Promoting Teachers' Organizational Commitment: The Effects of Authentic Leadership, Teachers' Well-Being and Social-Emotional Competence.

Committed and satisfied teachers have been increasingly recognized as valuable assets in enhancing the effectiveness of schools and adapting to evolving education reforms. This study investigates how and under what conditions principals' authentic leadership contributes to teachers' organizational commitment. Valid data collected from 476 teachers in seven primary schools in mainland China were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM), regression analysis and bootstrapping tests. The results yielded a partial mediation model, finding a significant direct effect of principals' authentic leadership on teachers' organizational commitment and an indirect effect through the mediating role of teachers' well-being. Moreover, teachers' social-emotional competence positively moderated the relationship between principals' authentic leadership and teachers' organizational commitment. This study underscores the theoretical importance of teachers' affective pathways and the boundary condition linking principals' authentic leadership to teachers' organizational commitment, while it also offers practical recommendations for school leaders.

German Parents and Educators of Two to Four-Year-Old Children as Informants for the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ).

Screeners are used in early intervention and early childhood education and care programs to identify children's potential need for further evaluation and diagnostics. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a brief behavioral screening instrument that can be completed by both parents and educators to assess the social and emotional traits of children. However, multiple informants' reports vary. In this study, the extent to which parents' (n = 241) and educators' (n = 157) differ and agree in their assessments of children aged 3.5 years on average, was examined. T-tests were used to examine differences between informants and correlations within a multitrait-multimethod matrix (MTMM) in their agreement. Results showed moderate to high levels of rater agreement ranging from r = .35 and r = .53 on the five subscales of the SDQ. We found that hyperactivity, peer relationship problems, and prosocial behavior vary due to meaningful reasons, e.g., the home vs. pre-school setting, and the informant's relationship towards the child. Hyperactivity seems to be relatively consistent across settings. Methodological variations might explain differences in emotional symptoms and conduct problems. Considering ratings from multiple informants outlines a more comprehensive view of children's behavior and should be preferred over single-informant research designs.

The role of social-emotional competencies in interpersonal relationships: a structural equation modeling approach.

Social-emotional competencies, a crucial non-academic factor for K-12 students to be competent 21st century citizens, are receiving increasing research attention. Based on the 2,801 self-reports of grades 4-8 students from four schools in China, this study scrutinized the associations between adolescents' five core competencies and their interpersonal relationships. Results indicated that five competencies acted as mediators between parent-child relationships and students' relationships with teachers and peers. In addition to the girls' advantage in five competencies, the results also demonstrated the gender and grade differences in the association. Boys had more indirect links and girls had both direct and indirect associations. There were grade differences in the mediating role of social awareness. The study's findings may advance our understanding of the parental influence on Chinese students' social-emotional competencies and provide a more nuanced picture of the conditions and interplay that foster or hinder students' proficiency in these competencies in schools and families.

Program Evaluation of the radKIDS® Youth Personal Empowerment Safety Education Program.

Developing sound evidence of program effectiveness can be difficult for many programs initiated by schools and communities, and impedes many beneficial programs from broader dissemination. This paper shares results of an evaluation approach used with a bullying and victimization prevention program with elementary school children called the radKIDS® Personal Empowerment and Safety Education Program. The purpose of this study was to examine indicators of initial effectiveness of the radKIDS® program for elementary school child safety skill development and instructor training to reduce child victimization and associated trauma and empower healthy psychosocial child development. The study involved 330 active radKIDS® instructors surveyed during two separate two-week periods, resulting in 148 completed questionnaires (45%). Instructors rated their perceptions of what children effectively learned in radKIDS®, the effectiveness of instructor training, and on Social Emotional Learning (SEL) competencies addressed in the program. Evaluation findings confirmed the theoretical model of the program, and that the developmental safety domains impacting children in radKIDS® differs from those in other bullying prevention interventions focused on SEL and other competencies. Recommended areas of improvement for the program included making training less time consuming and more flexible in delivery, provide more practice opportunities and time on skill acquisition during training, and increase supervision and guidance during program implementation. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40653-024-00618-5.

Post-traumatic Reactions and Social-Emotional Competence Among Chinese High School Students Experiencing COVID-19 Lockdown: A Network Analysis.

In the post-pandemic era, psychological traumas have emerged as major mental health issues. However, the post-traumatic reactions and their connections with social-emotional competence among high school students experiencing COVID-19 lockdown have not been adequately explored. This study aimed to reveal the characteristics of their positive and negative post-traumatic reactions, and their connections with social-emotional competence. Network analysis was used on data from 1096 Chinese high school students who experienced COVID-19 lockdown. Measures included the DSECS-S, the PTGI and the PC-PTSD-5. The results revealed that "Valuing life" and "Recalling unwillingly" were identified as core factors of post-traumatic reactions, while "Having close friendships", "Getting along well with others" and "Respecting others' emotions" played a bridging role in connecting the communities of social-emotional competence and post-traumatic reactions. This study enriches research on post-traumatic reactions, emphasizing the importance of implementing social-emotional competence programs to tackle mental health crises.

Social-emotional competence, social adequacy, and self-regulation among Iranian female high school students.

The research aimed to investigate the association between social-emotional competence and social adequacy with the self-regulation of female high school students in Tehran. The sample of the current study consisted of 250 female participants from the student community in different educational areas of Tehran, who were selected using the multi-stage cluster sampling method. The measurement tools were: The social-emotional competence scale, the social adequacy scale and the self-regulation questionnaire. The findings revealed a positive association between social-emotional competence, social adequacy, and self-regulation among Iranian female students. Resulted of regression analysis showed that self-regulation was positively predicted by social-emotional competence and social adequacy. Enhancing social competence, particularly in emotional and psychological aspects, can improve students' adaptation and well-being. This can help prevent issues such as social rejection, substance abuse, and depression in both their school environment and future personal and professional lives. Additionally, it is important to implement various intervention programs targeting parents and teachers to raise awareness about social-emotional competence and social adequacy in adolescent girls, as well as strategies for fostering these skills. This will improve their mental health and help prevent the development of various addictive behaviors.

Effects of a Social-Emotional Learning Intervention on Social-Emotional Competencies and Behavioral Problems in Elementary Students Amid COVID-19.

This study investigated whether a social-emotional learning program, implemented over a one-year period, could lead to gains in social-emotional competencies and to a reduction in internalizing and externalizing problems in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the program analyzed how students (boys vs. girls) with varying levels of social-emotional competencies and externalizing and internalizing problems, and from different socioeconomic backgrounds, were differently affected. The program was applied to 358 Portuguese third- and fourth-grade students (51.4% boys, Mage = 8.56; SD = 0.82). Self-report (students) and hetero-report (teachers) questionnaires were administered before and after the intervention. Linear mixed-effects models were computed to test intervention impacts. Significant intervention gains were noted in social-emotional learning competencies, namely emotional knowledge, social competence, peer relations, self-management, and academic behavior, and in externalizing (social problems) and internalizing (anxiety) problems. No effects were found in aggressiveness. Students with lower social-emotional competencies and higher externalizing and internalizing problems at baseline profited more from the program. Gender moderated both emotional knowledge and social problems, and socioeconomic status only moderated social problems. Findings highlight the effectiveness of this social-emotional learning program, especially for students facing initial challenges. Recommendations for future research, acknowledging limitations and strengths, are discussed.

First Nations music and social emotional wellbeing and health among LGBTIQA+SB First Nations peoples: a review of the literature.

Music has been linked to improved social and emotional wellbeing for First Nations Peoples, yet little research directly explores the link between music and social emotional wellbeing of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer, Asexual, Sistergirl, and Brotherboy (LGBTIQA+SB) First Nation Peoples in Australia. This article reports on a hybrid scoping narrative review of existing literature that explores LGBTIQA+SB social emotional wellbeing and potential links to music practices, such as music listening, performance, and composing. Findings suggest that music and creative practices can be linked to feelings of elation, positive self-regard, and safety. Music and performance can promote and celebrate the diversity and complexities of Queer First Nations people and identities through art and performance, enhancing a sense of belonging and links to community, generating feelings of pride, and contributing to knowledge sharing. Community connections built through creative arts and digital platforms are seen as enhancing social emotional wellbeing for First Nations Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer/Questioning, Brotherboy, Sistergirl people.

Insights gained from a cultural adaptation of preschool promoting alternative thinking strategies©: the importance of teachers' cultures as an implementation driver.

Introduction: Cultural adaptation of interventions is complex and yet vital to achieving the intended benefits of interventions with new populations. However, little is known regarding deliverers' perceptions of cultural adaptation and when a cultural adaptation process can be considered complete. The purpose of this study was to explore aspects of cultural adaptation that need further attention in an intervention that had undergone an initial cultural adaptation. Methods: Four focus groups (FGs) were conducted with preschool teachers who had worked with a culturally adapted version of preschool Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS©) in Sweden for approximately 6 months. In total, 16 teachers from eight preschools were included, with 3-5 teachers in each group. All FGs were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis with an inductive approach was applied to the transcribed data. Results: Three themes were identified where teachers described the need for further cultural adaptation for the intervention to align with personal and societal fundamental cultural values and be useful for their work as teachers in the Swedish preschool setting. The themes pertained to culturally adapting a manual-based intervention to a foundational, value-based approach, such as the practical application of core values and the steering documents of the Swedish preschool. Furthermore, the practical function of the culturally adapted intervention in the new cultural context revealed a further need to adjust materials and activities in interaction with the children. Finally, the prerequisites within the Swedish cultural setting, including resources and collaboration with parents as part of the work structure for preschool teachers in Sweden, needed further attention in relation to the intervention. Conclusion: The findings of this study highlight the importance of the deliverer in the cultural adaptation process in addition to adaptations that focus on end users (children in the case of preschool PATHS). Furthermore, the study indicates a need for a more open-ended view of the cultural adaptation process for interventions than perhaps previously described in models of cultural adaptation of interventions.

An Eye-Tracking Study on Six Early Social-Emotional Abilities in Children Aged 1 to 3 Years.

BACKGROUND: The experimental evaluation of young children's socio-emotional abilities is limited by the lack of existing specific measures to assess this population and by the relative difficulty for researchers to adapt measures designed for the general population. METHODS: This study examined six early social-emotional abilities in 86 typically developing children aged 1 to 3 years using an eye-tracking-based experimental paradigm that combined visual preference tasks adapted from pre-existing infant studies. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to obtain developmental norms in six early social-emotional abilities in typical children aged 1 to 3 years that would be promising for an understanding of disorders of mental development. These developmental standards are essential to enable comparative assessments with children with atypical development, such as children with Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities (PIMD). RESULTS: The participants had greater spontaneous visual preferences for biological (vs. non-biological) motion, socially salient (vs. non-social) stimuli, the eye (vs. mouth) area of emotional expressions, angry (vs. happy) faces, and objects of joint attention (vs. non-looked-at ones). Interestingly, although the prosocial (vs. antisocial) scene of the socio-moral task was preferred, both the helper and hinderer characters were equally gazed at. Finally, correlational analyses revealed that performance was neither related to participants' age nor to each other (dismissing the hypothesis of a common underpinning process). CONCLUSION: Our revised experimental paradigm is possible in infants aged 1 to 3 years and thus provides additional scientific proof on the direct assessment of these six socio-emotional abilities in this population.

Social-Emotional Development in the Summer Art Camp Setting.

Introduction  Social-emotional development refers to the development of one's abilities to understand, regulate, and express emotions and to establish and maintain successful relationships with peers and adults. Education in the arts has been shown to promote learning these skills, but the relationship between social-emotional development and summer art camp has not been explored. Methods The objective of this study is to determine the potential for social-emotional development in a community-based art day camp. A qualitative thematic analysis of the art camp's curriculum was conducted and compared with current literature regarding opportunities for social-emotional development in arts education and summer camp settings. Results The summer art camp curriculum included practices known to facilitate social-emotional learning in school-aged children. The curriculum data themes identified were performance, art projects, and outdoor activities. All of these themes have been shown to facilitate social-emotional skill building and can be connected to the components of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) framework. Conclusions Through the shown benefits of summer camp in combination with the benefits of in-school arts education, art camp provides the unique opportunity to practice self-expression, friend-making, and self-esteem building, all of which can contribute to mental well-being and academic success long-term.

Screen time and social-emotional skills in preschoolers with developmental, behavioural or emotional issues in Singapore.

Introduction: This study aimed to determine patterns of screen viewing time (SVT) in preschool children with developmental, behavioural or emotional (DBE) issues, and to identify its relationship with social-emotional development. Method: This cross-sectional study involved children aged 0-5 years who were referred to a developmental paediatric clinic for DBE issues. Parents completed a screen time questionnaire, and the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment-Clinical (DECA-C) question-naire which assessed the social-emotional competence of the children. Data were analysed using logistic regression, correlational analyses and tests of comparison. Results: Among 225 children (mean age: 32.4 months), mean daily SVT was 138 minutes. More than half (51.1%) of the children had clinical features of language delay, while 26.6% had features suggestive of autism spectrum disorder. Screen time was first introduced at a mean age of 13.8 months, with 32.4% of children previously experiencing higher SVT. Compared to SVT introduction after 1 year of age, SVT in the first 12 months was primarily to facilitate feeding (P<0.05). Children with higher past SVT had poorer attention, more aggression, and increased behavioural concerns. Children with DBE issues have significantly more screen time than same-aged peers. Conclusion: Children with DBE issues are exposed to SVT at a very young age and have significantly more screen time than their peers. It is crucial to guide parents to reduce SVT in early childhood, particularly around mealtimes.

Could school programs based on social-emotional learning prevent substance abuse among adolescents?

In this editorial, we comment on the article Adolescent suicide risk factors and the integration of social-emotional skills in school-based prevention programs by Liu et al. While the article focused on the issue of suicide and social-emotional learning programs as a possible intervention, we here discuss evidence of other reported outcomes and if it could be an effective way to prevent substance abuse among adolescents.

Trait mindfulness during pregnancy and maternal-infant bonding: Longitudinal associations with infant temperament and social-emotional development.

Maternal love and caregiving are pillars for optimal child development and may affect infant outcomes from pregnancy onwards. The present study aimed to examine whether maternal trait mindfulness during pregnancy and pre- and postnatal maternal-infant bonding were associated with maternal perceptions of infant temperament and social-emotional development. In total, 408 Dutch women (Mage = 31.33, SD = 3.59) participated in a prospective perinatal cohort study and completed questionnaires on trait mindfulness, prenatal bonding, postnatal bonding, infant temperament, and infant social-emotional development at 20 and 28 weeks of gestation, and 10 weeks, 6 and 12 months postpartum, respectively. Path analyses demonstrated that higher levels of the trait mindfulness facet non-judging (i.e., refraining from judgments about own feelings and thoughts) were associated with more pre- and postnatal maternal bonding and fewer social-emotional problems as perceived by the mother. Adopting an accepting and non-judgmental attitude may promote positive feelings of bonding and benefit the infant in terms of having fewer social-emotional problems in the first year of life. Mindfulness interventions may be offered to pregnant women in order to enhance maternal bonding and improve infant outcomes after birth.

Social and emotional impact of anterior drooling in school-age children and young people with neurodevelopmental disabilities.

PURPOSE: Anterior drooling is a common comorbidity in children and young people (CYP) with neurodevelopmental disabilities. This study aimed to assess the social and emotional impact of drooling in CYP with a developmental age (DA) of 6 years and older, in whom this impact may differ from those with a lower DA due to their developing sense of self and awareness of their position within social groups. METHODS: Questionnaire data collected for routine clinical care were used to assess parental perceptions of the impact of drooling on (1) social interaction; (2) satisfaction with social interaction, appearance, family relations and life in general and (3) the way CYP expressed feelings on appearance, acceptance by peers and acceptance by adults. Fisher's exact tests and Mann-Whitney U tests were applied to identify associations between clinical characteristics and the social and emotional impact of drooling. RESULTS: Seventy-nine CYP with an estimated DA ≥ 6 years were included. The majority experienced frequent to constant (83%) and profuse (61%) drooling. Drooling frequently compromised social interaction with peers (49%) and adults (28%), and cognitive abilities were underestimated in 40%. Dissatisfaction with physical appearance (25%) related to drooling was noted. One-fifth of CYP reportedly expressed negative feelings on acceptance by peers related to drooling. CONCLUSIONS: These findings underscore the substantial impact of drooling on CYP with a DA of 6 years and older, primarily through avoidance by peers and underestimated cognitive abilities, emphasizing that recognizing and addressing these social-emotional consequences should be integral to clinical care. WHAT IS KNOWN: • Anterior drooling is common among children and youth with neurodevelopmental disabilities. WHAT IS NEW: • There seems to be a heightened prevalence of impaired social interaction with peers and underestimation of cognitive abilities due to drooling among children with a developmental age of at least 6 years compared to previous studies with more heterogeneous populations. • The impact of drooling can extend to domains that affect self-esteem, although this may not be fully captured with standardized questions, requiring clinicians to address these consequences in a way that is tailored to the child's experiences.

Social-Emotional Profiles of Preschool Children: An Investigation of Demographic Disparities and Intersectionality.

This study aims to enhance our understanding of the diverse nature of social-emotional development and explore the demographic disparities and intersectionality of social determinants among children, with an emphasis on underserved populations of children in low-resource environments. Young children living in low-income families are exposed to a wide array of social and systemic risks that increase the propensity for poor learning and social-emotional development. Using data from the Head Start Family and Childhood Experiences Survey (FACES, this study focuses on the social-emotional development of a nationally representative sample of young children enrolled in the Head Start program (n = 1921, 50.18% male). Employing a person-centered approach, we assessed teacher-rated social-emotional competence, including approach to learning, social cooperation, aggression, hyperactivity, and anxiety/depression/withdrawal, to classify young children's social-emotional development. This study identified four distinct social-emotional profiles-Adaptive, Average, Moderate Risk, and High Risk-through latent profile analysis. Furthermore, multinomial regression analysis revealed demographic disparities within each social-emotional profile, and significant intersectionality was found between race/ethnicity, age, and disability status in the social-emotional profiles. This research provides valuable insights for better supporting each child's unique needs.