The Impact of Enhancing Students' Social and Emotional Learning: A Meta-Analysis of School-Based Universal Interventions

A challenge for 21st-century schools involves serving culturally diverse students with varied abilities and motivations for learning (Learning First Alliance, 2001). Unfortunately, many students lack social-emotional competencies and become less connected to school as they progress, and research has shown this lack of connection negatively affects their academic performance, behaviour and health.

Schools have an important role to play in raising healthy children by fostering not only their cognitive development, but also their social and emotional development. Yet schools have limited resources to address all of these areas and are experiencing intense pressures to enhance academic performance.

Previous research has suggested that universal school-based efforts to promote students' social and emotional learning (SEL) represent a promising approach to enhance children's success in school and life. Extensive developmental research indicates that effective mastery of social-emotional competencies is associated with greater wellbeing and better performance, whereas the failure to achieve competence can lead to a variety of personal, social and academic difficulties.