Understanding and promoting socio-emotional competence in children and young people Prof Robin Banerjee School of Psychology University of Sussex robinb@sussex.ac.uk
Emotional well-being
Social relationships
Academic engagement
Achievement outcomes
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Ecological model of the school environment Community Whole School Class Peer Group
Child
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Higher attainment results Whole-school universal approach to SEAL
Positive social and emotional school ethos
Positive social experiences Lower persistent absence
Banerjee et al. (2013)
Self-determination theory
Is the environment supporting children’s basic needs? • Autonomy • Competence • Relatedness
family context AND school context
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Living in a material world
Dittmar & Banerjee, Leverhulme Trust grant (2010-2013) • children’s internalisation of consumer culture ideals and impact on well-being • major longitudinal survey study, interviews, experiments • particular focus on combination on ‘extrinsic motives’ (e.g., to improve social status)
initial studies showed significant link between: • extrinsic motives • consumer culture values • low well-being (Easterbrook et al., 2013)
Consumer culture values
Peer rejection Depresive symptoms
More peer rejection! More depressive symptoms!
Banerjee et al. (in prep.)
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And what about learning?
Ku et al. (2012, 2014) cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental evidence from UK and Hong Kong children and teenagers Materialistic value orientation predicts: decreased mastery learning goals increased performance goals lower persistence AND declining exam performance
Children in foster care
Luke & Banerjee (2012) – interviews with foster carers • “Well, he keeps saying he wants to die. He says everyone hates him…he would have times when he knew what his Mummy had done and he’d be really sad.” • “I think a lot of children blame themselves. [She] didn’t say in so many words, but I think she thought, ‘I let Daddy in, Daddy came in my room, it’s my fault that Daddy came in’ – that’s the way she used to look at it. With [boy], he saw so much when he was younger, and that would have affected his self-esteem a lot. And his sisters got adopted and he wasn’t, everything wasn’t right for him. He seemed to be the odd one out all the time.”
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• “She’s not only very controlling, she’s also very needy of the friendship…She’s so desperate to get friends, but the neediness seems to put them off.” • “Well, she’s got this thing of feeling that she’s under attack, even when she isn’t.” • “[She] doesn’t get invited to birthday parties at school, so that’s an indicator of the level of acceptance by the other children, in my view.”
School-excluded pupils Hanrahan & Banerjee (in prep.) “I was fighting a lot with other kids, and I was bunking quite a lot, and I … never really hardly went in” BEHAVIOUR “I’m not as smart as you think, … there’s a certain limit there… that’s as smart as I can get” FIXED VIEW OF ABILITY “I’ve always got a brick wall around me … You’ll never see me … who I really am, who I always want to be but don’t feel that I’m able to” SELF “[The school staff] didn’t care … They knew that the school was bad; they knew that the people there was bad, so they just didn’t really care” ENVIRONMENTAL SUPPORT
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Raising Aspirations with Safety Net’s Shooting Stars
Support for 8- to 11-year-olds identified as potentially benefiting from support regarding protective behaviours, informed risk-taking, motivation, and social relationships
81 young people completed a brief self-rating scale at two or three time points through the project
55 young people, 13 parents/carers, and 2 school staff also provided retrospective ratings of attitudes towards the project and changes experienced
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One of the young lads, he just wouldn’t say boo to a goose. Really, very shy… just so painfully shy… [Teacher said] it’s like looking at a different child now. It’s given him a massive boost. He’s playing, socialising, hand up in the class. Wow. (SS, project staff).
Children came back from activities incredibly happy and showing a real sense of accomplishment and satisfaction – great to see. These are the types of experiences they will remember for life. (SS, school staff)
We got to make friends with people we didn’t know and some of the people I didn’t even used to like. (SS, YP-F10)
I feel like I’m better at doing stuff [at school]. I felt more comfortable doing stuff because I felt brave. (SS, YP-F9).
They went up [the climbing wall] blindfolded, which was just incredible to watch… These are children that didn’t have any confidence… They wanted to prove a point to themselves that they could do it….They were all behind each other… They all cheered each other. (SS, school staff).
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And don’t forget about the staff experience!
Carrasco Ogaz & Banerjee (in prep.) • Analysis of data from a national sample of over 10,000 teachers in Chile • Organisational factors were significant predictors of teacher turnover, above and beyond a large number of control variables • Positive and supportive school leadership reduced turnover • School priority on relationships reduced turnover • School priority on academic monitoring increased turnover!
• Question: is the environment supporting or thwarting basic needs?
Conclusions
The social context of children’s life at home and school really matters!
Consider both universal work and targeted work with particular groups
Building a partnership with parents
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