Special Edition article: The evaluation of school-based social and emotional learning interventions: Current issues and future directions

Abstract

Recent large-scale studies in the US have produced results suggesting that school-based, universal social and emotional learning (SEL) interventions may impact positively on a range of outcomes, including social and emotional skills, mental health difficulties, school attitudes and academic performance. However, many interventions fail to achieve the same impressive results when implemented and evaluated on a smaller-scale. Although research findings have indicated several possible explanations for these inconsistent findings, including implementation failure, the potential impact of other factors such as differences between efficacy and effectiveness trials, the level of involvement of programme developers in evaluations and issues around cultural transferability remain unexplored. This article examines each of these issues in the evaluation of school-based SEL interventions, highlighting important considerations for researchers working in this field. Directions for future research are also discussed.