ABSTRACT
Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), the process of developing and utilizing interpersonal skills for everyday life, has become a primary vehicle for structuring students' social and emotional health in the United States and across the world. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of understanding SEL practices, is increasingly at the forefront of many discussions in education today. Since "non-academic factors" like SEL were added to U.S. education law (ESSA, 2015), the state of Florida has also added two mandates concerning SEL (Florida Senate Bill 7026: The Marjorie Stoneman Douglas Act and FS 1003.42;Rule 6A-1.094121: Curriculum mandate for four hours of SEL as part of mental health education). This has led to the adoption of SEL programming in schools. In 2018, Martin County Public Schools adopted the BASE Education learning program, an SEL approach that aimed to help high school students, identified as at-risk after a discipline infraction, to "learn about and apply psycho-social concepts through supportive, therapeutic dialogue" (MCSD Code of Conduct, Chapter V, 2022, p.18). BASE Education is an online program currently being implemented in all high schools within the Martin County School District. In purchasing BASE for implementation into the disciplinary process and SEL supports, the district projected that BASE Education would increase self-awareness and increase responsible decision making, thus decreasing discipline referrals. This study examines two components of the disciplinary experience of MCSD students: (1) The SEL experience of high school students referred to BASE Education intervention programming in the Martin County School District, and (2) How students who have participated in [personalized] BASE Education modules describe the nature of their pathway within the online experience. This study represents the first time that an analysis of the student referral experience data and online SEL intervention experiential pathway program data has been undertaken in Martin County Public Schools. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
Introduction: The social and emotional health of youth is important, especially after students experience the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study was to understand the influence that the Believe In You Student Empowerment Program had on students social emotional learning (SEL) behaviors over a 10 week period during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and methods: A part of this quantitative study, one school in each the intervention and the control group (delayed intervention; 2 schools total) participated in the study. Students enrolled in physical education within each school participated (n = 166; Intervention = 88). Students in each group took a survey at week 1 (baseline measure), week 5, and week 10. Students who were in the intervention group started the program after week 1, while the delayed intervention group began the program in week 5. Results: A series of ANCOVA's examined the difference of social emotional learning knowledge and social emotional learning scales between the treatment and control groups. Self-awareness (F = 13.91, p < .01), self-management (F = 6.14, p < .01) & relationship skills (F = 5.50, p < .05) saw significant differences over time compared to the control group. The second series of analyses looked only at the intervention group and analyzed to determine significant differences in mean scores of SEL variables between weeks one and ten. Emotional regulation saw significant differences (t = 2.5, p < .01). The final set of analyses conducted were with the delayed intervention group and examined the difference in mean SEL scores over the three time periods. Again, emotional regulation saw significance with an interaction of time and gender (F = 4.162, p < .01). Discussion and Conclusion: In a short period of time, Believe in You Student Empowerment Program has shown the potential to have a positive influence on students social emotional learning behaviors, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. More research should be conducted over a longer period of time, in-person, and with an experimental design to better understand the effects of the Varsity Brands Believe in You Student Empowerment Program and its implications with student social emotional learning behaviors.