Maurice J. Elias

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. Widespread implementation of beneficial prevention programming requires further development of research-based, comprehensive school reform models that improve social, health, and academic outcomes; educational policies that demand accountability for fostering childrens full development; professional development that prepares and supports educators to implement programs effectively; and systematic monitoring and evaluation to guide school improvement.

Social Competence, Social Support, and Academic Achievement in Minority, Low-Income, Urban Elementary School Children.

Despite living in disadvantaged urban communities experiencing social and economic hardships, many children emerge with positive outcomes. Social-emotional competence and social support were hypothesized to have strong influences on academic trajectories during the critical period of academic skill acquisition. Participants were 282 third-grade students from six elementary schools in a Northwestern urban community. Beyond the importance of prior levels of academic competence, considerable variance in end-of-year academic outcomes was predicted by initial levels of academic social-emotional competence and improvements in social-emotional competence and perceived teacher support over the course of the year. Noteworthy is that findings were strongest for African-American students, but methodological caveats regarding research with underachieving minority youth were discussed. The findings suggest that school psychologists and others designing interventions to improve achievement of disadvantaged students should address social-emotional competencies and classroom climate, especially teacher support of students.

Patterns of Individual Adjustment Changes During Middle School Transition

Abstract The present study examined the patterns of individual adjustment changes in a sample of 99 early adolescents during an ecological transition from elementary school to middle school. Early adolescents in the sample showed significant changes in their adjustment following the transition, as indicated by their increased psychological distress or decreased academic achievement following the transition. Gender differences were found in adjustment changes over time, suggesting that boys and girls may be differentially affected by middle school transition. Different patterns of adjustment changes were explored by means of cluster analysis on the basis of psychological distress scores before and after the transition. Three distinct patterns were identified across genders, including (a) an average start but increasing to high pattern, (b) an initial low but increasing to moderately high pattern, and (c) a pattern of consistently high scores over time. The results are discussed in terms of individual differences among early adolescents in their adjustment to middle school transition. Implications for research and practice in school psychology also are elaborated.

Impact of a preventive social problem solving intervention on children's coping with middle-school stressors

Children receiving 1 year or 1/2 year of a preventive social problem solving program in elementary school were compared with each other and with a no-treatment group upon entry into middle school. One year of training was significantly related to reductions in the severity of a variety of middle-school stressors. Most importantly, a clear mediating role for social problem solving (SPS) skills was found. Children lacking in SPS skills were more likely to experience intense stressors; however, possessing the skills was not necessarily predictive of adjustment to stressors. The results are discussed in terms of the implications of this asymmetry and the strong support given to the value of social problem solving as a preventive intervention for children.

Coping Scale for Children and Youth: Scale Development and Validation

Abstract A new self-report measure of childrens coping is described. Scale development began with a compilation of 44 coping behaviors culled from previous research. These items were administered in small-group format to 498 children in sixth and eighth grades. Subjects were asked to rate how often they used each coping behavior in their efforts to deal with a self-identified stressor. Factor analysis of the data produced four discrete coping categories: assistance seeking, cognitive-behavioral problem solving, cognitive avoidance, and behavioral avoidance. The factor pattern was the same across grade and sex of subject. Test-retest reliability and internal reliability for the four subscales were moderate to high. Data on grade and sex differences in coping are presented, as are data on the construct validity of the scale. Implications of the development studies and an assessment of the attributes of the new scale are discussed.

Social and Emotional Learning: Promoting the Development of All Students

High-stakes tests. Substance abuse. Suicide. Academic standards. Delinquency. Media and technology. Teacher retention. Interpersonal violence. Dropouts. Changes in families. The list of issues faci...

Enhancing young people's social competence and health behavior: An important challenge for educators, scientists, policymakers, and funders*

Abstract Large numbers of Americas young people engage in multiple high-risk behaviors that may jeopardize their health and social development. Given the gravity of this situation, many federal agencies and national organizations have called for the implementation of school-based K-12 social competence and health promotion programs. Unfortunately, there is a gap between the comprehensive programs that policymakers are asking educators to implement and the limited scope, duration, and intensity of state-of-the-art health promotion programs that scientists have developed and evaluated. As a result, most schools currently adopt well-marketed programs that lack documented effectiveness. Although current research indicates that brief, well-designed, theory-driven competence promotion and health education programs produce short-term benefits, there have been no controlled, longitudinal field studies to evaluate the long-term effects of K-12 efforts. This paper proposes that policymakers and funding agencies support long-term collaborations among educators and scientists to develop and evaluate K-12 comprehensive social competence and health education programs and identifies critical issues that funded projects should address.

Patterns of adolescent involvement in problem behaviors: Relationship to self-efficacy, social competence, and life events

Using a sample of 556 adolescents from a suburban community, patterns of various adolescent problem behaviors (e.g., delinquent behavior, smoking, use of alcohol or drugs) and their links to self-efficacy, social competence, and life events were examined. Cluster analysis was conducted to identify four subgroups of adolescents who showed distinct patterns of problem behaviors. These clusters were compared on the measures of self-efficacy, social competence, and life events. Overall results suggest there are meaningful links between adolescents’ problem behavior patterns and self-efficacy, the amount and quality of participation in various after school activities, and life events. For example, a subgroup of adolescents who showed uniformly low prevalence of all problem behaviors reported more positive academic self-efficacy, more active participation in sports and nonsports activities, more positive life events, and fewer negative events than adolescents who were involved in multiple problem behaviors. Implications for prevention and future research on adolescent problem behaviors are discussed.

Social-Emotional and Character Development and Academics as a Dual Focus of Educational Policy

There is a missing piece to America’s education agenda, and children will continue to be left behind until that piece is addressed. Furthermore, children are not being systematically prepared for their complex roles as citizens in our democracy. A growing body of evidence from research and practice suggests reconceptualizing education as an integration of social-emotional and character development (SECD) and academic learning. This article reviews skills children need for effective social and academic participation, characteristics of schools that effectively integrate these forms of learning, and key reasons to adopt this integration. It concludes with examples of, and suggestions for, bringing SECD to prominence in educational policy making.

The Connection between Social-Emotional Learning and Learning Disabilities: Implications for Intervention

The majority of students with learning disabilities have difficulties with social relationships. In this article, three key skill areas in social-emotional learning are identified as the main source of these difficulties: recognizing emotions in self and others, regulating and managing strong emotions (positive and negative), and recognizing strengths and areas of need. Research supporting their connection with learning disabilities is reviewed. In addition, three examples of interventions that are comprehensive and link academic and social-emotional learning are presented. The first is from language arts. The others are pedagogical procedures that draw upon the multiple intelligences to assist students with tasks such as projects or reports and working through academic and social challenges.