A PILOT STUDY TO FIND THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIALEMOTIONAL LEARNING INTERVENTION ON AGGRESSION AND EMPATHY AMONG ADOLESCENTS.

Abstract

Adolescence is a challenging and dynamic period due to hormonal, physical, emotional, cognitive and social changes. Aggression in any form, if present, or its manifestations is linked to various psychosocial maladjustments or mental disorders and are negatively associated with prosocial behavior and adaptive social functioning, especially during adolescence. It may also be a red ag sign for development of mental disorders. One factor that buffers against aggression during adolescence is empathy. Emotional intelligence and empathy are considered key components of emotional education by developing young people's capacity to successfully cope with the pressures of life and demands of their stressful environment. Social-emotional learning (SEL) is one such interventional program that focuses on these issues and helps in improving empathy and decreasing aggression in adolescents. The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL, 2012) denes SEL as “the process of acquiring the skills to recognize and manage emotions, develop caring and concern for others, make responsible decisions, establish positive relationships, and handle challenging situations effectively." In this pilot study 80 students from an English medium school were taken. Using three questionnaires, aggression and empathy of students were measured pre SEL intervention. After twelve sessions of SEL intervention, the aggression and empathy was again measured using the same questionnaires to nd out if there is a difference between the pre and the post scores. Most of the aggression and anger came down post SEL intervention. It was also found to have signicant difference in pre and post intervention ratings of empathy. The signicant difference in pre and post intervention ratings of aggression as well as empathy led to conclude the efcacy and effectiveness of the SEL intervention.