Trending Topic Research File
School leaders are increasingly focused on students' social-emotional learning skills—such as self- and social awareness, relationship skills, decision making, and self-management—to enhance their overall academic performance.
The following compendium of open-access articles are inclusive of all substantive AERA journal content regarding social emotional learning published since 2015. This page will be updated as new articles are published.
Note: Articles are listed below in reverse chronological order of publication.
A Systematic Review of Student Disability and Race Representation in Universal School-Based Social and Emotional Learning Interventions for Elementary School Students Christina Cipriano, Lauren H. Naples, Abigail Eveleigh, Amanda Cook, Melissa Funaro, Colleen Cassidy, Michael F. McCarthy, Gabrielle Rappolt-Schlichtmann Review of Educational Research, June 2022 Researchers present a systematic review of elementary school universal school-based (USB) social and emotional learning (SEL) interventions from 2008 through 2020 for two groups of minoritized students in education research and practice: students with disabilities and/or minoritized racial identities.
Social Class and Emotional Well-Being: Lessons From a Daily Diary Study of Families Engaged in Virtual Elementary School During COVID-19 Shana R. Cohen, Alison Wishard Guerra, Monica R. Molgaard, Jessica Miguel AERA Open, May 2022 Researchers found that parents reported more positive emotions than negative emotions. Findings provide opportunities for educators to mitigate learning loss by building on children’s learning experiences and family adaptations to daily routines during COVID-19.
Supporting Syrian Refugee Children’s Academic and Social-Emotional Learning in National Education Systems: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial of Nonformal Remedial Support and Mindfulness Programs in Lebanon Carly Tubbs Dolan, Ha Yeon Kim, Lindsay Brown, Kalina Gjicali, Serena Borsani, Samer El Houchaimi, J. Lawrence Aber American Educational Research Journal, December 2021 Researchers found that the remedial program with both classroom climate-targeted SEL and skill-targeted activities had positive impacts on children's perceptions of public schools and on certain basic academic skills and marginally significant positive and negative impacts on some SEL outcomes.
Rethinking Learning: What the Interdisciplinary Science Tells Us Na’ilah Suad Nasir, Carol D. Lee, Roy Pea, Maxine McKinney de Royston Educational Researcher, October 2021 Researchers build on recent research in education, neuroscience, psychology, and anthropology to articulate a theory of learning that has the potential to move toward schools and classrooms where deep learning occurs, where learners’ full selves are engaged, and that disrupt existing patterns of inequality and oppression.
Assessing Survey Satisficing: The Impact of Unmotivated Questionnaire Responding on Data Quality Christine Calderon Vriesema, Hunter Gehlbach Educational Researcher, August 2021 Researchers examined student satisficing's pervasiveness and impact on a large-scale social–emotional learning survey administered to 409,721 elementary and secondary students.
The Effects of Absenteeism on Academic and Social-Emotional Outcomes: Lessons for COVID-19 Lucrecia Santibañez, Cassandra M. Guarino Educational Researcher, February 2021 This paper uses administrative panel data from California to approximate the impact of the pandemic by analyzing how absenteeism affects student outcomes.
The Association Between School Discipline and Self-Control From Preschoolers to High School Students: A Three-Level Meta-Analysis Jian-Bin Li, Shan-Shan Bi, Yayouk E. Willems, Catrin Finkenauer Review of Educational Research, December 2020 Researchers found that the overall effect size for the association between school discipline and self-control was small to medium.
Teaching to Support Students With Diverse Academic Needs David Blazar, Casey Archer Educational Researcher, June 2020 Researchers examined whether conceptual, cognitively demanding, and “ambitious” instruction—emphasized by policy and practice communities—serve the needs of students with specialized academic needs.
Trends in Student Social-Emotional Learning: Evidence From the First Large-Scale Panel Student Survey Martin R. West, Libby Pier, Hans Fricke, Heather Hough, Susanna Loeb, Robert H. Meyer, Andrew B. Rice Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, March 2020 This study simulates how four constructs—growth mindset, self-efficacy, self-management, and social awareness—develop from Grade 4 to Grade 12 and how these trends varied by gender, socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity among students participating in the survey for two consecutive years.
A Meta-Analytic Review of Preschool Social and Emotional Learning Interventions Dana Murano, Jeremy E. Sawyer, Anastasiya A. Lipnevich Review of Educational Research, March 2020 Researchers found small to medium effects of universal social and emotional learning interventions delivered to all students on the overall development of social and emotional skills and on the reduction of problem behaviors.
Nothing Lost, Something Gained? Impact of a Universal Social-Emotional Learning Program on Future State Test Performance Susan Crandall Hart, James Clyde DiPerna, Pui-Wa Lei, Weiyi Cheng Educational Researcher, January 2020 Researchers observed that effect sizes of a brief universal SEL program on students’ subsequent state test performance generally were positive and consistent with other studies employing similar designs.
Relationships Among Noncognitive Factors and Academic Performance: Testing the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research Model Dana Wanzer, Elyse Postlewaite, Nazanin Zargarpour AERA Open, December 2019 Results of the study support the hypothesized model of noncognitive factors and academic performance proposed by researchers at the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research; however, academic perseverance was not significantly related to academic performance in the context of other noncognitive factors.
Long-Term Effects of Social–Emotional Learning on Receipt of Special Education and Grade Retention: Evidence From a Randomized Trial of INSIGHTS Meghan P. McCormick, Robin Neuhaus, E. Parham Horn, Erin E. O’Connor, Hope I. White, Samantha Harding, Elise Cappella, Sandee McClowry AERA Open, August 2019 Researchers found no impact of one SEL program implemented in kindergarten and first grade on grade retention in fifth grade. However, treatment group students were less likely to ever receive special education services by the end of fifth grade, with low-income students appearing to drive this effect.
To Understand Is to Forgive: Learning a Simple Model of Appraisal Leads to Emotion Knowledge Transfer and Enhances Emotional Acceptance and Empathy Ilya Lyashevsky, Melissa Cesarano, John Black American Educational Research Journal, July 2019 Researchers found that U.S. high school graduates who received a 1-hour online intervention rated their own and others’ emotional reactions as significantly less blameworthy than the control group did, signaling emotion knowledge transfer and greater empathy and emotion acceptance.
Identifying Naturally Occurring Direct Assessments of Social-Emotional Competencies: The Promise and Limitations of Survey and Assessment Disengagement Metadata James Soland, Gema Zamarro, Albert Cheng, Collin Hitt Educational Researcher, July 2019 Researchers conducted a literature review to investigate whether assessment metadata (typically data relevant to how students behave on a test or survey) can provide information on SEL constructs.
Why High School Grades Are Better Predictors of On-Time College Graduation Than Are Admissions Test Scores: The Roles of Self-Regulation and Cognitive Ability Brian M. Galla, Elizabeth P. Shulman, Benjamin D. Plummer, Margo Gardner, Stephen J. Hutt, J. Parker Goyer, Sidney K. D’Mello, Amy S. Finn, Angela L. Duckworth American Educational Research Journal, May 2019 Researchers found that success in college requires not only cognitive ability but also self-regulatory competencies that are better indexed by high school grades.
School Differences in Social–Emotional Learning Gains: Findings From the First Large-Scale Panel Survey of Students Susanna Loeb, Michael S. Christian, Heather Hough, Robert H. Meyer, Andrew B. Rice, Martin R. West Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, April 2019 Researchers found substantive differences across schools in SEL growth, with magnitudes of differences similar to those for growth in academic achievement.
How Do Academically Selective School Systems Affect Pupils’ Social-Emotional Competencies? New Evidence From the Millennium Cohort Study John Jerrim, Sam Sims American Educational Research Journal, February 2019 Researchers found that exposure to the academic selection process has limited impact upon young people’s socioemotional outcomes.
A Meta-Analysis of Family-School Interventions and Children’s Social-Emotional Functioning: Moderators and Components of Efficacy Susan M. Sheridan, Tyler E. Smith, Elizabeth Moorman Kim, S. Natasha Beretvas, Sunyoung Park Review of Educational Research, January 2019 The analyses yielded significant effects of family-school interventions on children’s social-behavioral competence and mental health.
Advanced Content Coverage at Kindergarten: Are There Trade-Offs Between Academic Achievement and Social-Emotional Skills? Vi-Nhuan Le, Diana Schaack, Kristen Neishi, Marc W. Hernandez, Rolf Blank American Educational Research Journal, January 2019 Researchers found that greater exposure to advanced content was associated with better interpersonal skills, better approaches to learning, better attentional focus, and lower externalizing behaviors.
The Play's the Thing: Experimentally Examining the Social and Cognitive Effects of School Field Trips to Live Theater Performances Jay P. Greene, Heidi H. Erickson, Angela R. Watson Educational Researcher, March 2018 Researchers find significant educational benefits from seeing live theater, including higher levels of tolerance, social perspective taking, and stornger command of the plot and vocabulary of those plays.
The Classroom as a Developmental Context for Cognitive Development: A Meta-Analysis on the Importance of Teacher–Student Interactions for Children’s Executive Functions Loren Vandenbroucke, Jantine Spilt, Karine Verschueren, Claire Piccinin, Dieter Baeyens Review of Educational Research, November 2017 Researchers found that teacher–child interactions are related to general executive functioning, working memory, and inhibition but not cognitive flexibility.
Associations Between Emotional Engagement With School and Behavioral and Psychological Outcomes Across Adolescence Anna J. Markowitz AERA Open, June 2017 The study found a causal relationship between emotional engagement with school and youth behavioral and psychological outcomes that decreases somewhat as youth age.
A Kindergarten Teacher Like Me: The Role of Student-Teacher Race in Social-Emotional Development Adam Wright, Michael A. Gottfried, Vi-Nhuan Le American Educational Research Journal, April 2017 Researchers found that having a teacher of the same race was unrelated to teachers’ ratings of children’s internalizing problem behaviors, interpersonal skills, approaches to learning, and self-control.
Embodied Brains, Social Minds, Cultural Meaning: Integrating Neuroscientific and Educational Research on Social-Affective Development Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Rebecca Gotlieb American Educational Research Journal, April 2017 Study authors present a series of interdisciplinary studies documenting individual and cultural variability in the neurobiological correlates of emotional feelings.
A Meta-Analysis of Class Sizes and Ratios in Early Childhood Education Programs: Are Thresholds of Quality Associated With Greater Impacts on Cognitive, Achievement, and Socioemotional Outcomes? Jocelyn Bonnes Bowne, Katherine A. Magnuson, Holly S. Schindler, Greg J. Duncan, Hirokazu Yoshikawa Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, February 2017 Researchers found that both class size and child–teacher ratio showed nonlinear relationships with cognitive and achievement effect sizes.
A Review of Social Problem-Solving Interventions: Past Findings, Current Status, and Future Directions Kristen L. Merrill, Stephen W. Smith, Michelle M. Cumming, Ann P. Daunic Review of Educational Research, February 2017 Researchers examined and summarized studies investigating SPS interventions in K–12 settings from 1993 to 2015 and discussed findings and implications for educational research and practice.
A Review of Classwide or Universal Social, Emotional, Behavioral Programs for Students in Kindergarten Christian V. Sabey, Cade T. Charlton, Daniel Pyle, Benjamin Lignugaris-Kraft, Scott W. Ross Review of Educational Research, January 2017 This article synthesizes the existing research on classwide social, emotional, and behavioral programs for kindergarten students.
The Effects of No Child Left Behind on Children's Socioemotional Outcomes Camile R. Whitney, Christopher A. Candelaria AERA Open, August 2017 This study found that the inroduction of high-stakes test accountability did not have consistenet sifnificant effects on these socioemotional outcomes.
Social Cognitive Constructs Are Just as Stable as the Big Five Between Grades 5 and 8 Sven Rieger, Richard Gollner, Marion Spengler AERA Open, July 2017 Researchers compared the mutability of the Big Five personality traits and social cognitive constructs described as socioemotional skills or motivational variables.
Extracurricular Activity Participation in High School: Mechanisms Linking Participation to Math Achievement and 4-Year College Attendance David S. Morris American Educational Research Journal, October 2016 Researchers examined extracurricular participation in High School and its connections to math achievement and 4-year college attendance.
Measurement Matters: Assessing Personal Qualities Other Than Cognitive Ability for Educational Purposes Angela L. Duckworth, David Scott Yeager Educational Researcher, May 2015 Researchers found that debate over the optimal name for "noncognitive" obscures substantial agreement about the specific attributes worth measuring.
Improving Outcome Measures Other Than Achievement Kristin Anderson Moore, Laura H. Lippman, Renee Ryberg AERA Open, May 2015 Researchers examine outcome measures other than achievement, including child health, emotional/psychological development, educational achievement/attainment, social behavior, and social relationships.
Classmates With Disabilities and Students' Noncognitive Outcomes Michael A. Gottfried Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, March 2015 The researcher found that students with a greater number of classmates with disabilities have higher externalizing and internalizing behavioral problems and lower frequencies of self-control, approaches to learning, and interpersonal skills.