Practice makes perfect: A behavioral challenge intervention to develop social, emotional, and behavioral skills

Protocol for a Systematic Review: Self‐Management Interventions for Reducing Challenging Behaviors among School‐age Students: A Systematic Review

Individuals use social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills to build and maintain social relationships, regulate emotions, and manage goal-directed behaviors. A promising integrative framework of SEB skills was recently proposed, showing that they matter for positive outcomes during adolescence. Nothing is known about how and whether they differ between 12 and 19 years old and whether such differences depend on gender (males or females). Uncovering their age trajectories is fundamental because SEB skills are highly needed during this period of life. Educators, psychologists, and policymakers need to understand when, why, and how interventions concerning SEB skills should be proposed, potentially considering male and female profiles. To cover this gap, we cross-sectionally analyzed data from 4106 participants (2215 females, 12-19 years old). We highlighted age and gender differences in the five domains of SEB skills (self-management, innovation, cooperation, social engagement, and emotional resilience). Our results show that each SEB skill follows a specific age trend: emotional resilience and cooperation skills increase naturally between 12 and 19 years old, while innovation, social engagement, and self-management skills decline, especially between 12 and 16 years old, and grow later. The trajectories of self-management, social engagement, and emotional resilience skills also differ between males and females. Importantly, we detected declines in SEB skills (especially for social engagement and innovation skills) that can inform policies and interventions to sustain SEB skills in youths to favor their well-being and success in this crucial period.

Introduction: Students during college face important phases in their lives, have greater responsibilities, and are required to improve their skills. Of the various types of skills, social skills have a large impact on mental health. This study aimed to determine the behavioral, emotional, and social skills among medical students in South Sumatra, Indonesia. Methods: This study is observational with a cross-sectional design. The participants were all students of the Faculty of Medicine in South Sumatra. Descriptive analysis was conducted by presenting the BESSI-45 score data in the median value. Results: The number of participants was 702 people, 74,9% female, 17-26 years old, 83,5% lived in South Sumatra, 3,4% had a history of mental disorder, and 4,3% had a history of mental disorders in their family. The largest median value of 73.33 is in the cooperation skills domain, followed by the median value of 71.11 in the self-management domain. The innovation skills and social engagement domains have the lowest median value of 62.22. It was found that 364 participants (51.9%) had scores below the median, while 338 participants (48.1%) had scores above the median. Conclusions: The study concluded that the majority of medical students in South Sumatra exhibit moderate levels of behavioral, emotional, and social skills, with the highest scores in cooperation and self-management domains. However, innovation skills and social engagement were identified as areas needing improvement. These findings highlight the need for targeted interventions to enhance the overall social and emotional well-being of medical students.

With the advent of the 21st century, the world has witnessed a growing interest and emphasis on developing students' social skills, emotional intelligence and addressing their behavioral issues in order to ensure their well-rounded growth. The current study was designed to assess the level of social, emotional and behavioral (SEB) skills of the adolescent girls studying in Grade VII in four semi-government schools of Lahore, Pakistan. In order to measure the social, emotional and behavioral skills of the adolescents, a scale called BESSI (Behavioral, Emotional and Social Skills Inventory) was developed by Soto et al. (2022). In this study, BESSI-96 was adopted, translated into Urdu and used as an instrument to gather data. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics. Findings revealed that the participants were at a moderate level in Cooperation Skills only, whereas they are at low levels in Self[1]management Skills, Emotional-resilience Skills, Innovation Skills and Social-engagements Skills. The schools should identify students needing support in specific SEB areas and design tailored programmes to improve their Social-engagement Skills, Emotional-resilience Skills, Cooperation Skills, Self-management Skills and Innovation Skills.

People differ in their social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills: their capacities to maintain social relationships, regulate emotions, and manage goal- and learning-directed behaviors. In five studies using data from seven independent samples (N = 6,309), we address three key questions about the nature, structure, assessment, and outcomes of SEB skills. First, how can SEB skills be defined and distinguished from other kinds of psychological constructs, such as personality traits? We propose that SEB skills represent how someone is capable of thinking, feeling, and behaving when the situation calls for it, whereas traits represent how someone tends to think, feel, and behave averaged across situations. Second, how can specific SEB skills be organized within broader domains? We find that many skill facets can be organized within five major domains representing Social Engagement, Cooperation, Self-Management, Emotional Resilience, and Innovation Skills. Third, how should SEB skills be measured? We develop and validate the Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (BESSI) to measure individuals' capacity to enact specific behaviors representing 32 skill facets. We then use the BESSI to investigate the nomological network of SEB skills. We show that both skill domains and facets converge in conceptually meaningful ways with socioemotional competencies, character and developmental strengths, and personality traits, and predict consequential outcomes including academic achievement and engagement, occupational interests, social relationships, and well-being. We believe that this work provides the most comprehensive model currently available for conceptualizing SEB skills, as well as the most psychometrically robust tool available for assessing them. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Transitioning from school to higher education or work is a pivotal moment in a student's life, requiring life-changing decisions. During this period, students who have acquired a wide range of Social, Emotional, and Behavioral (SEB) skills may feel more confident regarding their capacity to adapt positively to future challenges and difficulties. Our study aimed to test whether five SEB skills domains (self-management, innovation, social engagement, cooperation, and emotional resilience skills) were associated with four career adaptability resources (i.e., concern, control, curiosity, and confidence). A cross-sectional study was conducted on 350 Italian students (143 boys; Mage = 16.65) at the end of their last or penultimate year of high school (May-June 2024). We ran a multivariate regression analysis to examine specific associations between SEB skills domains and career adaptability resources. Furthermore, we tested a structural equation model including a latent factor of career-adaptability as the dependent variable, and SEB skills domains as predictors. Our results showed that students who described themselves as more competent in self-management, innovation, and social engagement skills reported higher levels of career adaptability (considering both the latent factor and the specific resources). Our findings highlight the importance of feeling competent in different domains, not just academics, as the perception of having tools and skills could make students more confident in their ability to face future challenges and adapt to their future careers.

Following indications from international organizations, this study tests the associations between the five domains of social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills (self-management, innovation, social engagement, cooperation, and emotional resilience) and two key antecedents of proenvironmental behavior, namely nature connectedness and self-perceived action competence for sustainability, in a sample of 702 students aged between 12 and 20 years (M = 16.18, SD = 2.15; 319 males). Results showed that innovation skills and—to a lesser extent—self-management and cooperation skills are positively associated with both nature connectedness and action competence. An additional exploratory path analysis suggested that the association between SEB (innovation, self-management, and cooperation) skills and proenvironmental behavior could bemediated by action competence and nature connectedness. The study offers new insights into the antecedents of proenvironmental attitudes and behaviors in youth.

Background and Objective: Rational, emotional, and behavioral skills include self-awareness, as well as critical and creative thinking, which assist individuals in acquiring a deeper understanding of their personality, weaknesses, strengths, emotions, values, and identity. The present research aimed to compare the effect of the rational-emotional theory and strict discipline on rational, emotional, and behavioral skills among high school second-grade students. Materials and Methods: The current study was conducted based on a pre and post-test design on three groups, including one control and two test groups. The statistical population consisted of 90 male second-grade high school students in Tehran during 2019-2020. The G*Power software was used to calculate the sample size. A number of 75 second-grade students were recruited for this study via the convenient sampling method. After that, the participants were assigned to three groups of 25 students. A self-made questionnaire of life skills, similar to Saatchi, Kamkar, and Askarian, was employed for data collection. Fifteen experts in curriculum planning confirmed the internal and external validity of the questionnaire. Moreover, its reliability was confirmed, rendering a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.92. The data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 21) using multi-variant analysis of the covariance and Scheffe's Post Hoc test. Results: Based on the results, the rational-emotional method had a more significant effect on students' rational (F=11.56, P<0.001), emotional (F=20.33, P<0.001), and behavioral skills (F=16.67, P<0.001), compared to the strict discipline. Conclusions: It can be concluded that life skill training through rational-emotional theory brings about a marked increase in students' rational, behavioral, and emotional skills. Nevertheless, the strict discipline method revealed no significant association between training students on life skills and increased rational, behavioral, and emotional skills.

Social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills encompass a wide range of competencies related to how individuals build and maintain relationships, understand and manage emotions, pursue goals, and learn from experience. Despite near-consensus on the importance of SEB skills for success in life, there are numerous frameworks that simultaneously converge and diverge in how they define and measure SEB skills. In this article, we discuss our integrative model encompassing five broad skill domains: Self-Management, Innovation, Social Engagement, Cooperation, and Emotional Resilience Skills (Soto et al., 2021a). Our model defines SEB skills asskills(i.e., what someone is capable of doing) and nottraits(i.e., what someone tends to do). Using this definition and model as a foundation, we argue for the importance of investigating SEB skill development during adolescence, a period where SEB skills may be both particularly amenable to change and particularly predictive of life outcomes. In particular, we highlight how SEB skills allow adolescents to take advantage of the new opportunities afforded to them as they make major cognitive and social transitions.

Introduction: Many research studies have been made on the effectiveness of life skills training program on cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and motivational skills in normal students. While afew investigations have been conducted about the effect of this program on mentioned variables simultaneously, in students with mathematical disorders. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of life skills training programs on cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and motivational skills in students with mathematical disorder. Materials and Methods: The present research was a quasi-experimental study by pre-post test design with control group. Participants were forty boy students aged from 13-15 years old with mathematical disorder. This sample size was randomly recruited from some learning disorder schools in Tehran province. Participants were equally divided into two groups of experimental and control. Subjects in experimental group received life skill training program in 9 sessions while, control group did not receive any intervention. Wechsler intelligence test, key Math diagnostic mathematic test, life skills training program of world health organization and social self-competence questionnaire of Felner, Lease and Philips were used to collect the data. The obtained data were statistically analyzed by MANOVA using SPSS, version 16. Results: The results of MANOVA showed that the experimental and control groups had a significant difference, At least in one of the sub-scales of the cognitive, behavioral, emotional,and motivational skills (F = 13.27, P < 0.001). The final results of MANOVA showed that the life skills training program had a significant and positive effect on cognitive skill (F = 8.78, P < 0.010), behavioral skill (F = 22.37, P < 0.050), emotional skill (F = 5.51, P < 0.010), and motivational skill (F = 17.42, P < 0/010). Conclusion: Life skills training program could have a significant effect on cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and motivational skills in students with mathematical disorders. Since enhancement of these skills can lead to social competence of students, planning for life skills training is of particular importance for students with mathematical disorders. Keywords: Life skills, Cognitive, Behavioral, Emotional and motivational skills, Mathematical disorders

‘Thinking Outside the Box’: Promoting Learning Through Emotional and Social Skills Development

Objectives Despite the numerous benefits of regular participation in physical activities for health and social engagement, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who experience difficulties in social and behavioral skills are less likely to participate in physical activities compared to their peers. There is a need for more research on the impact of regular participation in physical activities on social and behavioral skills in children diagnosed with ASD. This study aimed to compare the social and behavioral skills of children diagnosed with ASD who participate in physical activity with those who do not. Methods The participants are parents of children diagnosed with ASD (n = 60). The study group (n = 30;12.33 ± 1.58 years) attended a rehabilitation center and a sports club, and the control group (n = 30; 12.57 ± 1.52 years) attended a rehabilitation center constituted two study groups. The Autism Behavior Checklist was used to assess the behavioral skills of children diagnosed with ASD aged 10–15, and the Social Skills Assessment Scale was used to evaluate their social skill levels based on their participation in physical activity. Results According to the analysis, statistically significant differences were found in the social skill scale and behavioral skills of children who participated in physical activity compared to those who did not. (p < .001). Additionally, the prediction of social skills’ behavior was examined by regression analysis. Accordingly, social skills predicted behaviors in the group participating in physical activity; it was found that it did not predict the group that did not participate in physical activity. Conclusions There was a difference between the behavioral and social skills of children diagnosed with ASD between the ages of 10–15 who do and do not participate in physical activity. This was an indication that physical activity was a positive aspect. It is recommended that future studies examine the effect of physical activity on children with autism more thoroughly.

Evidence across the social sciences suggests the importance of social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills for a wide variety of youth outcomes. However, most of this work is cross-sectional. We know little about how patterns of change in adolescents’ SEB skills may be related to commensurate patterns of change in important outcomes across an academic year. Drawing from a sample of American secondary school students ( N = 942), this longitudinal study employs latent change score models to fill that gap. We report four key findings. We find that (1) a short version of the Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (BESSI) is psychometrically suitable for longitudinal analyses. We further find that (2) SEB skills are highly stable, on average, but also (3) characterized by significant between-person variation in change. Centrally, we find that (4) positive changes in SEB skills are related to changes in academic engagement, friendship quality, anxiety, depression, life satisfaction, as well as other measures of social and emotional competencies. Taken together, the results suggest that SEB skills are malleable, but future work is needed to identify patterns of change and develop and test targeted interventions.

Success in life is influenced by more than cognitive ability and opportunity. Success is also influenced by social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills: a person’s capacities to maintain social relationships, regulate emotions, and manage goal- and learning-directed behaviors. In this article, we propose an integrative model that defines SEB skills as capacities (what someone is capable of doing) rather than personality traits (what someone tends to do) and identifies five major skill domains: social engagement, cooperation, self-management, emotional resilience, and innovation. We then argue that operational measures of SEB skills should reflect rather than obscure the distinction between skills and traits. Finally, we propose an agenda for future work by highlighting open questions and hypotheses about the assessment, development, and outcomes of SEB skills as well as interventions and public policy targeting these skills.

Children's emotional and social skill development plays a crucial role in their social adjustment and mental health. Studies show that parenting style strongly influences this process, not only directly on the child's behaviour, but also indirectly on their emotional and social skills through emotion regulation. In recent years, scholars have increasingly focused on the mediating role of emotion regulation in parenting styles and children's social skill development, in an attempt to further reveal how parenting styles facilitate or hinder the formation and development of children's social skills by influencing emotion regulation. Therefore, with a particular focus on the mediating role of emotion regulation skills, this study will examine the effects of parenting styles on the development of children's emotional and social skills. Analyzing the effects of various parenting styles on emotion regulation can deepen our understanding of how effective parenting strategies can promote the healthy development of children's emotional and social skills. The study found that authoritative parenting, characterized by warmth and support, positively influenced children's emotional and social skills by enhancing their emotion regulation abilities. On the other hand, authoritarian and neglectful parenting styles were linked to poorer emotion regulation, hindering the development of children's social skills.