Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl

University of Illinois Chicago | UIC · Department of Psychology

Introduction Early adolescents who are new to Canada experience dual challenges of navigating developmental changes and multiple cultures. This study examined how changes in early adolescents’ emotional health from ages 9 to 12 differed by immigration background, and to what extent peer belonging and supportive school climate protected or promoted...

Despite the rapid growth of social and emotional learning (SEL) programs, research on program implementation has lagged behind. In the landscape of implementation science for SEL programs, fidelity and dosage are often emphasized, but important aspects like adaptation have largely been neglected. This qualitative study addresses three research ques...

Introduction This study examined profiles of social connectedness among early adolescents in grade 7 before the COVID‐19 pandemic was declared (Winter 2020), and in grade 8 during the second Wave of the pandemic (Winter 2021). Method Linked data from 1753 early adolescents (49% female) from British Columbia, Canada who completed the Middle Years D...

The COVID-19 pandemic and related school disruptions have led to increased concerns for the mental health of teachers. This study investigated how the challenges and systemic supports perceived by teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with their mental health and workplace well-being. This cross-sectional, survey-based study was con...

Interest in the applications of mindfulness practice in education is growing in the scientific community. Recent research has shown that mindfulness practice in schools may be beneficial for executive functions (EFs) which are abilities crucial for healthy development. The study of the effects of mindfulness practices on children's neural correlate...

Introduction La pandémie de COVID-19 a eu des effets importants sur la santé mentale des adolescents. Toutefois, on en sait peu sur la recherche de soutien, les besoins non comblés et les préférences des adolescents en matière de soins de santé mentale. Méthodologie L’instrument YDI (Youth Development Instrument, ou Instrument de mesure du dévelop...

Kindness is key to flourishing school communities. A social-cognitive approach to virtue emphasizes the importance of having an elaborate set of accessible mental representations (i.e., schemas) for expressing kindness. We employed a multi-informant, mixed method, longitudinal design across 6 months that focused on 4th and 5th graders’ (N = 320) ki...

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has had widespread effects on adolescent mental health. However, little is known about support-seeking, unmet need and preferences for mental health care among adolescents. Methods The Youth Development Instrument (YDI) is a school-administered survey of adolescents (N = 1928, mean age = 17.1, SD = 0.3) across Br...

Organized activity participation has been linked to children’s emotional wellbeing. However, a scarcity of literature considers the role of immigrant background. This study’s primary objective was to measure the association between organized activity participation and emotional wellbeing among a population-based sample of Grade 7 children in Britis...

A team of researchers from the UBC Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP), the Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences (CHÉOS), in partnership with the BC Ministry of Education and the BC Teachers’ Federation, conducted a cross-sectional survey of teachers in British Columbia in February 2021, about one year into the COVID-19 pandemic an...

Background Early adolescence is a time of psychological and social change that can coincide with declines in mental health and well-being. This study investigated the psychological and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of students who responded to a survey in Grades 7 and 8 (ages 12–14) in British Columbia (BC), Canada. T...

Background Refugee children face numerous challenges associated with pre-migration trauma and post-migration adaptation. Much research pertaining to refugee children’s well-being focuses on psychiatric symptoms. Relatively few studies have examined how social context factors—such as perceptions of peer belonging, and support from adults at home and...

Interest in human–animal interaction (HAI) research is burgeoning. It is suggested that participation in universal programs that incorporate HAI can promote the social and emotional competencies (SECs) of children and youth. However, there is a dearth of empirical evidence (i.e., outcome evaluations) attesting to the effectiveness of such programs....

This mixed methods study examined how middle school students (ages 11–13) in middle-class neighborhoods in Western Canada characterized a caring teacher. Specifically, qualitative content analysis was conducted on 199 sixth and seventh grade students’ written responses to the question “What are three things that teachers do to show they care?” Guid...

Yoga-based interventions have been implemented in schools and demonstrated promising results on students’ self-regulation outcomes. Nevertheless, there is limited literature on the effects that yoga may have for children in the early primary grades, despite the evidence demonstrating that this is an opportune period in development for early self-re...

There is accruing evidence documenting the importance of caring student-teacher relationships in fostering students’ social and emotional competence (SEC), well-being, and school success, particularly during early adolescence. However, few studies have investigated dimensions of caring student-teacher relationships from the perspective of early ado...

This study linked data from two large population monitoring surveys in British Columbia, Canada, (N = 17,181) to examine associations between teacher-rated social-emotional functioning at school entry (age 5) and child self-reported internalizing and wellbeing in Grade 4 (age 9). Latent profile analysis identified seven profiles of early childhood...

The study of child and adolescent learning has generally focused on aspects specifically tied to individual academic performance. However, a new emerging perspective is that any “deficit” and/or disability and conversely any achievement is not the result of a single event, such as an isolated reaction, but it is formed, through numerous biosocial c...

Scholars have only just begun to examine elements of young adolescents’ social ecologies that explain naturalistic variation in trait mindfulness and its development over time. We argue that trait mindfulness develops as a function of chronically encountered ecologies that are likely to foster or thwart the repeated enactment of mindful states over...

The study of child and adolescent learning has generally focused on aspects specifically tied to individual academic performance. However, a new emerging perspective is that any ‘’deficit’’ and/or disability and conversely any achievement is not the result of a single event, such as an isolated reaction, but it is formed, through numerous biosocial...

The study of child and adolescent learning has generally focused on aspects specifically tied to individual academic performance. However, a new emerging perspective is that any “deficit” and/or disability and conversely any achievement is not the result of a single event, such as an isolated reaction, but it is formed, through numerous biosocial c...

It is well established that children’s school readiness is associated with their later academic achievement, but less is known about whether school readiness is also associated with other measures of school success, such as students’ social and emotional wellbeing. While some previous research has shown a link between early social and emotional dev...

Immigrant and refugee children and adolescents form a growing socially, culturally, and economically diverse group with the potential for wide-ranging adaptation outcomes. The goal of the study was to examine whether developmental competencies (social-emotional and academic) and sociodemographic disparities (e.g., SES and migration class) identifie...

This study examines adolescents' (N = 28,712; 49% female; Mage = 12.25, SDage = 0.51) recreational screen time and participation in extracurricular activities during after-school hours in association to indicators of positive (optimism, satisfaction with life) and negative (anxiety, depressive symptoms) mental health and wellbeing. Data were drawn...

Theoretical perspectives suggest the importance of teachers' emotion regulation skills, occupational health (e.g., burnout), and well-being (e.g., life satisfaction) for students, yet few studies have empirically tested these associations. The current study tested whether teachers' cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, occupational burnout...

This research was designed to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of a social and emotional learning (SEL) mindfulness-based school program (MindUp) for children in post-conflict Northern Uganda. In study one, we culturally adapted and implemented MindUp with 5th and 6th graders. Over a two-year period, significant decreases in children’s s...

Population-based, person-specific, longitudinal child and youth health and developmental data linkages involve connecting combinations of specially-collected data and administrative data for longitudinal population research purposes. This glossary provides definitions of key terms and concepts related to their theoretical basis, research infrastruc...

Extracurricular participation plays an important role in positive youth development. Yet, little is known about the stability and change in extracurricular participation from middle childhood to early adolescence. Also, there is a gap in knowledge about the underlying processes that drive developmental outcomes associated with extracurricular parti...

Self-regulation—the capacity to modulate attention and emotion—is a robust predictor of important outcomes across the life span. Contemplative practices, such as yoga and mindfulness, have been implemented in schools and shown to improve self-regulation. For the most part, studies incorporating contemplative practices have used quantitative methodo...

Background: While power imbalance is now recognized as a key component of bullying, reliable and valid measurement instruments have yet to be developed. This research aimed to develop a self-report instrument that measures power imbalance as perceived by the victim of frequent aggressive behavior. Methods: A mixed methods approach was used (468...

This study examined profiles of participation in extracurricular activities (ECAs) in 4th grade children (N = 27,121; Mean age = 9.20 years; SD = .54; 51% male) in British Columbia, Canada. Latent class analyses were used to establish activity profiles and determine class membership; ANCOVA was used to investigate differences in mental wellbeing (o...

Around the globe, dialogs about educational reform and the integration of social and emotional learning (SEL) into policy and curriculum are proliferating. SEL is now a worldwide phenomenon and not just a passing fad, with SEL approaches and programs being implemented in countries throughout the world. Articles included in this special issue are au...

The importance of social and emotional wellbeing has long been recognised by education systems but the measurement of wellbeing still receives far less attention than the measurement of academic achievement. This paper reports on a five-year project to measure student wellbeing across an education system within the state of South Australia using th...

Social isolation of school children is increased when teachers feel unable to respond to children’s report of witnessing or experiencing aggression at school. Teachers can find it difficult to respond adequately to children who report aggression when the aggression is deliberately hidden from the teacher by the perpetrator. This study aimed to expl...

Objectives: Few studies have examined predictors of positive development among children currently in foster care. We examined associations between perceived support from adults in three developmental contexts (home, school and neighbourhood)and mental well-being (life satisfaction, self-concept, optimism)among grade four children living with foster...

Bullying in schools is associated with an extensive public health burden. Bullying is intentional and goal oriented aggressive behavior in which the perpetrator exploits an imbalance of power to repeatedly dominate the victim. To differentiate bullying from aggressive behavior, assessment must include a valid measure of power imbalance as perceived...

Purpose: The Satisfaction With Life Scale adapted for Children (SWLS-C) is a self-report measure of children’s quality of life and has exhibited sound psychometric properties. In light of increasing ethno-cultural diversity, it is important to understand child life satisfaction across diverse subgroups. Employing children’s language background as a...

Research on self-compassion in adults and adolescents has consistently shown positive associations of self-compassion to mindfulness, psychological and physical well-being, self-esteem, and compassion towards others. Yet, self-compassion in children has not been examined. The present study was conducted to explore the reliability and validity of th...

Objectives: The present study examined the degree to which early adolescents' relationship experiences in school (i.e., peer group belonging, peer victimization, and supportive relationships with adults)-at the individual level and at the school-level-were associated with their dispositional optimism, concurrently and over time. Method: Self-rep...

This paper examined measurement invariance (MI), both across gender and over time, of the Satisfaction With Life Scale adapted for Children (SWLS-C). Adapted from the adult SWLS, the SWLS-C is a self-report measure for children and adolescents to assess their life satisfaction. The sample comprised elementary school students in British Columbia, Ca...

Social and emotional learning is increasingly recognized as playing an important role in the promotion of positive mental health in schools. In 2012, the Mental Health Commission of Canada identified child and youth mental health as a priority for the transformation of mental health systems in Canada. To this end, comprehensive efforts to promote p...

The study looked at the stratified math and language arts trajectories of foreign-born adolescents (aged 14–19) in British Columbia (BC), Canada, and identified social position factors that predicted this variation. Leveraging data from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the study looked longitudin...

In this article, the perceptions of preadolescent children (ages 9-11) regarding factors that influence and protect against power imbalance associated with covert aggression and bullying are explored. In aggression research, the term covert has been typically used to describe relational, indirect, and social acts of aggression that are hidden. Thes...

Social-emotional learning (SEL) in schools is a fast-growing field of research and practice that is aimed at teaching children and adolescents core social and emotional competencies that are linked to trajectories of health and success in life. This chapter reviews empirical evidence that supports the effectiveness of school-based SEL in achieving...

This paper discusses the conceptualization, development, validation, and application of the Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI) – a population-based child self-report tool that assesses children's social-emotional development and well-being in the context of their home, school, and neighborhood. The MDI is administered at a population-level t...

A report for the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) http://www.casel.org/teacher-preparation/

Teachers are the engine that drives social and emotional learning (SEL) programs and practices in schools and classrooms, and their own social-emotional competence and wellbeing strongly influence their students. Classrooms with warm teacher-child relationships support deep learning and positive social and emotional development among students, writ...

In this study, we sought to create and validate a brief measure to assess students’ perceptions of kindness in school. Participants included 1,753 students in Grades 4 to 8 attending public schools in a large school district in southern British Columbia. The School Kindness Scale (SKS) demonstrated a unidimensional factor structure and adequate int...

Bullying in schools is a major health concern throughout the world, contributing to poor educational and mental health outcomes. School nurses are well placed to facilitate the implementation and evaluation of bullying prevention strategies. To evaluate the effect of such strategies, it is necessary to measure children’s behavior over time. This sc...

The aims of education in the 21st century include non-cognitive skills needed to thrive in school, career, and life. As a period of transition and developmental plasticity, adolescence can be been seen as a window of opportunity for intervention to promote these developmental outcomes. The Mind & Life Education Research Network (MLERN) posited that...

40 students (ages 17 - 18) were interviewed to investigate their experiences with contemplative practices and their perceptions thereof. Half of the participants had participated in a mindfulness-based social and emotional learning program (MindUP) when they were 9 or 10 years old. These 20 students were also asked to reflect back on their percepti...

This study investigated how various risk and protective factors interface with child health and well-being at the population level. Specifically, we examined the association of income, social-contextual variables, and indicators of health-related habits and activities to children’s life satisfaction and perceived overall health. Child data were col...

The effects of randomization to a workplace mindfulness training (WMT) or a waitlist control condition on teachers’ well-being (moods and satisfaction at work and home), quantity of sleep, quality of sleep, and sleepiness during the day were examined in 2 randomized, waitlist controlled trials (RCTs). The combined sample of the 2 RCTs, conducted in...

This handbook addresses the educational uses of mindfulness in schools. It summarizes the state of the science and describes current and emerging applications and challenges throughout the field. It explores mindfulness concepts in scientific, theoretical, and practical terms and examines training opportunities both as an aspect of teachers’ profes...

The purpose of this introductory chapter is to provide a brief overview of the Handbook on Mindfulness in Education, and of the emerging field of science and practice concerned with mindfulness in education for students, teachers, and administrators. We describe the aims of the handbook, provide brief introductions to each of the chapters that comp...

Introduction Covert bullying in schools is associated with a range of academic, social, emotional and physical health problems. Much research has focused on bullying, but there remains a gap in understanding about covert aggression and how to most accurately and reliably measure children's own reports of this behaviour. This paper reviews relevant...

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) can reduce teachers’ stress. The purpose of this mixed-method study, conducted within the context of a randomized-control trial of an MBI for teachers, was to examine four potential ways by which the MBI reduced teacher stress, including by (1) increasing their efficacy for regulating emotion on the job; (2) i...

The goal of this research was to examine the role of supportive adults to emotional well-being in a population of Grade 4 students attending public schools in Vancouver, Canada. Reflecting the ecology of middle childhood, we examined the extent to which perceived family, school, and neighborhood support relate to young people’s self-reported emotio...

The authors hypothesized that a social and emotional learning (SEL) program involving mindfulness and caring for others, designed for elementary school students, would enhance cognitive control, reduce stress, promote well-being and prosociality, and produce positive school outcomes. To test this hypothesis, 4 classes of combined 4th and 5th grader...

Investigations of human potential and well-being recently have focused on mindfulness—a unique quality of consciousness that is defined as being aware of one’s thoughts and actions in the present moment. Previous research examining mindfulness among adults has found mindfulness to be positively related to indicators of well-being, such as optimism,...

The present study explored the mediating role of cognitive and affective components of empathy in the relationship between happiness and positive and negative affect in adolescents with Asperger Syndrome (AS) and their non-AS peers. For that purpose, we measured empathy, subjective happiness, and affect experienced by a group of 42 adolescents with...

It has been proposed in the literature that there exists a dissociation between the cognitive and the affective components of empathy among individuals with autism spec-trum disorders, among them, Asperger syndrome (AS). The existing results, however, show mixed results. This literature review aims to shed some light on this field by reviewing stud...