Abstract
This paper describes the development of a brief school-based instrument designed for use in research and in educational practice. The Survey of School Promotion of Emotional and Social Health differentiates states of high, moderate, and low implementation of whole-school policies and practices that promote the emotional and social health of students. The instrument measures the extent to which a school has implemented policies and practices in four health-promoting domains: (a) creating a positive school community, (b) teaching social and emotional skills, (c) engaging the parent community, and (d) supporting students experiencing mental health difficulties. Responses were gathered via an online survey of Principals in almost 600 Australian primary schools in New South Wales. Preliminary psychometric properties of the instrument, and the development of an implementation index using latent class analysis, are described. The final 13-item version of the survey has broad applicability for use by researchers and evaluators for comparative and multivariate analyses. School leadership may find it useful as a brief tool to guide the identification of target areas for whole-school improvement across the four important health-promoting domains.
Highlights
Improving the capacity of schools to enhance students’ academic achievement and wellbeing is a central focus of governments in Australia (e.g. Gillard, 2010; Jensen &Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.Sonnemann, 2014) and internationally (e.g. Ainscow and West, 2006; Fullan, 2007; Resnick, 2010; Sammons, 2007)
In this paper we describe the development of a new instrument, the Survey of School Promotion of Emotional and Social Health (SSPESH), which is designed to measure the school-level construct of whole-school emotional and social health promotion
The measure is intended to serve as a guide for schools in identifying target areas for whole-school improvement in mental health and wellbeing in their community
Summary
Research indicates that “schools will be most successful in their educational mission when they integrate efforts to promote children’s academic, social, and emotional learning” (Zins et al, 2004) and that “strong bonds between student behaviour, attainment and learning and their social and emotional development” are central (Sammons, 2007). This evidence has been actioned in nation-wide school-based initiatives that address students’ wellbeing and bolster each child’s capacity for effective academic learning (e.g. CASEL, 2008; DCSF, 2009; ENSEC, 2009; KidsMatter, 2009; Benningfield et al, 2015)
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