Maurice J. Elias

• Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

The skills conveyed in high school are essential for success, and evidence suggests that psychosocial well-being is critical to that process. Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID) is an in-school, academic support program that targets underserved students. The current study explored the impact of an intervention program targeting academic...

Interventions to address the racial/ethnic “academic achievement gap” in the United States have not been successful. We argue this lack of success is, at least in part, related to a lack of recognition that racism is the root cause of racial disparities in education. In this chapter, we summarize the strengths and pitfalls of fostering academic res...

Introduction Investment in academic instruction without complementary attention to the social–emotional environment of students may lead to a failure of both. The current study evaluates a proposed mechanism for change, whereby academic achievement occurs as a result of the social–emotional learning environment impacting behavioral (discipline) out...

This study examined the associations among race/ethnicity, school climate, and social‐normative expectations (expectations about peers' future achievement) in high and low socioeconomic status (SES) schools, with a particular focus on school climate as a process that might influence social‐normative expectations. Results showed that more positive p...

In the current study, we sought to understand relations among the key intervention targets of social-emotional and character development (SECD) interventions: character virtues, Positive Purpose, and social-emotional learning (SEL). Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students (n = 1011, ages 11 to 16, M = 12.94, SD = 1.00) from five urban middle scho...

There is currently limited research on student peer leadership in the social‐emotional literature. This paper used exploratory methods of social network analysis to understand the structure of school peer relationships, peer leadership, and school climate. Self‐report measures of perceptions of peer leadership and climate were given to students dur...

Objectives. The present research had two main objectives. The first was to examine the impact of emotional intelligence and aspects of spiritual intelligence on life satisfaction among emerging adults in high-income countries. The second objective was to study the interactions between the variables. Methods. First, we used predictive analysis to ex...

Current events and sociopolitical tensions have demonstrated the need to recognize and address the social injustices affecting students, including their self-understanding, dialogue, and learning in the classroom. As students witness and navigate the contemporary challenges within their environments, they are practicing critical awareness and const...

Informed by the Social-Emotional and Character Development (SECD) approach to school turnaround, the present study examined the relationship between students’ recollection and reflection of their experience in a SECD program and academic achievement and explored the mediating effect of student-teacher relationships. Based on an intervention in an u...

In these challenging times, it is essential to activate student voice and prepare them for civic engagement and social action. Social-emotional learning strategies integrated into the social studies curriculum help to accomplish just that. Laura Bond, Maurice Elias, and Samuel Nayman describe the STAT program, which enables students to build both s...

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) has identified 5 sets of social-emotional learning (SEL) skills (the CASEL 5): self-awareness; self-management; social awareness and empathy; relationship skills; and responsible, ethical decision-making. SEL is critical for students to be able to manage their own internal stres...

A plethora of terms and related programs have been used to describe and teach the behaviors, skills, attitudes and strategies needed to help students develop in both intelligence and moral maturity – character education, social-emotional learning (SEL), and positive youth development, to name a few. The article provides an overview of the existing...

We used Developmental Systems Theory as a framework for understanding the role of contextual factors in the development of purpose in urban adolescents. The sample included primarily low-socioeconomic students of color attending urban middle schools (n = 2,629; 10-16 years of age). Longitudinal data were collected at four time points across two yea...

Social Emotional Learning (SEL), like the arts, has accompanied human life throughout its existence. SEL refers to our capacity to recognize emotions in ourselves and others and manage them appropriately, be organized and set goals, solve problems and make decisions effectively, establish positive and productive relationships with others, and handl...

Critics and supporters have expressed concern that social-emotional learning (SEL) has not been adapted to children suffering from trauma. While SEL has been identified as a mechanism through which trauma-informed schools can be created, this does not make SEL implementation, in and of itself, trauma-informed. Erica Pawlo, Ava Lorenzo, Brian Eicher...

Social-emotional learning (SEL) refers to a set of competencies that form the basis of human interaction. So, SEL in schools is no fad. But what would happen if every school actively wanted to bring in SEL tomorrow? Using the articles in the special issue on SEL as a springboard, this article looks at the neurological basis of SEL, SEL best practic...

The highest form of virtuous behavior in the Aristotelian virtue ethics approach to character education involves practical wisdom, or phronesis, which allows an individual to act in the right way about the right things for the right reasons. Here, we use our experiences with social-emotional and character development (SECD) in low-resourced urban m...

There is an emerging consensus that areas of research and intervention described variously as social and emotional learning, character education and development, 21st century learning, life skills training, prosocial education, and positive youth development are tapping into competencies and characteristics essential for human health, accomplishmen...

Teaching character virtues and social–emotional skills in isolation of social–political context is incomplete at best. Further, racial and ethnic inequity in social action and political influence spans from youth to adults and must be addressed (Kahne & Middaugh, 2008b). Middle school is a crucial developmental time to cultivate students’ social–em...

In this chapter, we make the case and propose policy recommendations to the US Secretary of Education, as well as state commissioners of education and other educational leaders, on how to effectively scale up high-quality social-emotional and character development (SECD) in all schools. First, we define SECD, social-emotional learning (SEL), and re...

In response to school environments in which teachers and students feel disconnected from the learning process, we developed a three-part curriculum feedback system with the goal of creating a school-wide culture of engagement through participatory feedback processes. Here we describe the barriers to participation and ownership that are addressed by...

Many Latino students miss opportunities to develop their full potential in U.S. schools. Increasing attention is being paid to the malleable, nonacademic, factors that can affect student learning. The current study sought to evaluate the impact of school climate on Language Arts grade for Latino students in a large, low-income, urban middle school....

Considering the key role of social-emotional and character development (SECD) competencies in college, career, and life success — and considering that many of those competencies are teachable — there is no excuse for failing to incorporate them systematically into our education system. That would be the equivalent of depriving children of oxygen. T...

The important role of social and emotional learning skills (SELs) in student learning and well-being has been well documented. In Australia, it is the case that, due in part to Australian SEL-oriented, mental health research as well as international scholarship in SEL, both the fields of psychology and education now accept that the development of s...

For students and schools, the current policy is to measure success via standardized testing. Yet the immutable factors of socioeconomic status (SES) and race have, consistently, been implicated in fostering an achievement gap. The current study explores, at the school-level, the impact of these factors on test scores. Percentage of students profici...

Our belief is that virtues must not only be learned but also applied for good. Therefore, our team has designed a virtue education program, Mastering Our Skills and Inspiring Character (MOSAIC), integrating character education and social-emotional learning methodology. This synthesized approach will use action pedagogy to teach youth both a constel...

The authors quantify and unpack the prevalence and effects of bullying on children and adolescents before prescribing provisos for schools to consider when planning preventive and responsive approaches to bullying.

This article synthesizes the current research on bullying prevention and intervention in order to provide guidance to schools seeking to select and implement antibullying strategies. Evidence-based best practices that are shared across generally effective antibullying approaches are elucidated, and these strategies are grounded in examples garnered...

Research increasingly suggests that low emotional awareness may be associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety among children and adolescents. However, because most studies have been cross-sectional, it has remained unclear whether low emotional awareness predicts subsequent internalizing symptoms. The current study used longitudinal data to...

Social-emotional learning (SEL) is a major component of school curricula in many countries today. Proponents have also conceptualized it as part of school health. In this article, we review historical antecedents, examine the reasons for the impact of social-emotional learning, and discuss major trends in SEL pedagogy, including decision making, sa...

The current world poses a challenge for youth. They are constantly exposed to a predominant social chaos which often involves them directly. As a result of the lack of safe environments, and by being spectators of the relationships among others, the relation between climate and learning is indisputable. This relation implies that student learning r...

The same competencies neglected in the implementation of the Common Core are those that ultimately most help students become what the author calls college-ready, career-ready, and contribution-ready. These include communication, meta-cognition, resilient mindset, responsible character, and social-emotional learning, intertwined with academic knowle...

Girls Leading Outward (GLO) is a positive youth development program for at-risk middle school girls that not only seeks to prevent future problems but also aims to foster resilience. GLO focuses predominately on urban, African-American, and Latina students from low-income communities, with a goal of reaching them prior to their transition to high s...

Sustainability of implementation has emerged as a major challenge for school-based social and emotional learning initiatives. There is a growing consensus regarding the importance of framing the issue of sustainability within the broader ecology of the school setting, and consultants have been advised to draw from ecological models in their work. L...

It has been estimated that bullying affects more than half of the students in American schools. This book can add significantly to your ability to combat and prevent this pervasive problem. Use it to improve the quality of education received by students in your community!

While high IQ is likely to be an advantage in moral reasoning, it does not guarantee students’ putting those morals into practice. A clearly defined sense of purpose grounded in values of social responsibility, exploration of values, and the search for ultimate truths, both personal and collective, is paramount. The Meaning in Life program in Israe...

During the 2009–2010 academic year, 10 schools participated in the Meaning of Life educational program, an adaption of the popular U.S. Laws of Life program. The program sought to encourage each participant to develop a personal approach to finding meaning in life. To evaluate the success of the program, we conducted a study to compare measures of...

As we enter the second decade of the twenty-first century, education in America is at a critical turning point. Call for reform is widespread and exemplified by the documentary film Waiting for Superman, which highlights the fact that for many American children, access to a quality education is often literally a lottery. Equal access to educational...

Developments in American policy, research and professional development to promote social and emotional learning in schools have drawn on work carried out by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), encouraged by the popular and political catalyst of Daniel Goleman’s work on emotional intelligence. Based on CASEL’s exp...

Recently, a growing body of research has focused on the sustainability of evidence-based interventions aimed at promoting the social emotional and character development of children (SEL) and preventing or reducing problem behaviors in schools. Current discussions of systemic reform in the education system address the capacity of individual schools...

School-based prevention and promotion interventions (SBPPI) improve desirable outcomes (e.g., commitment to school and attendance) and reduce undesirable outcomes (e.g., suspensions and violence). Unfortunately, our understanding of how to effectively implement and sustain SBPPI outside of well-controlled conditions is lacking. To bridge this scien...

Previous studies have reported that children from single-parent households fare worse behaviorally than those from two-parent households. Studies examining single-parent households often fail to distinguish between single-mother and single-father households. Further, there are inconsistent findings regarding the effect of family structure on boys a...

Most of tomorrow's leaders will almost certainly be college or university graduates. In order to learn more about their feelings about their future and personal life goals, a survey of about 800 undergraduate degree students at Tel Hai College was conducted, using Snyder's Adult Hope Scale, Steger's Meaning in Life Questionnaire, and a questionnair...

Background. In recent years, school nurses have become increasingly aware of the adverse effects of bullying in the primary and secondary school setting. Victims of bullying exhibit a wide range of both physical and psychological symptoms and suffer significantly higher reporting of unexplained psychosomatic symptoms than those who are not bullied....

National statistics reveal that Latino youth face significant challenges and engage in many risky behaviors that can hinder positive development and well-being, such as attempted suicide, lifetime cocaine use, unprotected sex, and dropping out of school. However, these statistics obscure the fact that many Latino youth are developing well despite e...

This article uses a multiyear case example to illustrate principles of comprehensive program consultation to low-performing urban school districts. The Plainfield (NJ) school district concluded that leaving no urban child behind required school personnel to attend to students' academic, social, and emotional development in an integrated, ongoing wa...

The introduction of primary prevention programs into schools has great potential to expand the roles of school personnel. Working collaboratively, school psychologists, teachers, and school administrators could facilitate adoption of social skills and health promotion programs. Leaders within schools are needed to initiate the move toward primary p...

The current study investigated the prevalence and impact of exposure to school violence using a cross-sectional design with a sample of 132 low-income, African American fifth graders (mean age = 10.20). Additionally, hope was examined in relation to adjustment and as a potential resilience factor in the context of school violence. Students complete...

The application of social-emotional and character development (SECD) in classrooms is about teaching, practicing, and modeling essential personal and civic life habits and skills that are almost universally understood as making people good human beings. Among these habits are respect, responsibility, integrity, caring, fairness, and constructive pr...

There is a missing piece to America’s education agenda, and children will continue to be left behind until that piece is addressed. Furthermore, children are not being systematically prepared for their complex roles as citizens in our democracy. A growing body of evidence from research and practice suggests reconceptualizing education as an integra...

Despite living in disadvantaged urban communities experiencing social and economic hardships, many children emerge with positive outcomes. Social-emotional competence and social support were hypothesized to have strong influences on academic trajectories during the critical period of academic skill acquisition. Participants were 282 third-grade stu...

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is diagnosed commonly in Israeli children following violent episodes of the ongoing Arab–Israeli conflict. Research has suggested that as many as 70% of war-affected children present symptoms of PTSD. This study examined two factors that may contribute to resiliency: perceived social support and sense of hope....

A number of studies have documented a normative decline in academic achievement across the transition from elementary school to middle or junior high school. The current study examined the effectiveness of varying levels of a social-emotional learning intervention, Talking with TJ, in limiting achievement loss across transition. Data were gathered...

School-based promotion of social competence continues to be a promising strategy for the primary prevention of psy-chosocial difficulties in children. Drawing on more than a decade of experience using this strategy, the authors identify major challenges they have encountered in the process of developing, implementing, evaluating, and maintaining so...

This study investigated how the tendency to express forgiveness, purpose, and religiosity in a free-response essay relates to emotional intelligence and self-concept in 89 5th-graders (mean age = 10.84 years) from an urban public school district in New Jersey. Readers coded essays for expressions of forgiveness, purpose, and religiosity using origi...

Irving Sigel's distancing theory and his cognitive and educational research has led to an understanding of the importance of “encompassing” educational settings and the promotion of positive developmental outcomes in the area of Jewish education. This paper describes how distancing theory provides a basis for understanding the effects of identity-e...

Laws of Life is a literacy-based intervention that allows students to identify and articulate the principles by which they live their lives. In the urban context, such an intervention is vital for reclaiming children's interest in writing and helping them to more intentionally guide their lives and their futures according to positive core values. T...

Among the many transitions and passages students face during their school years, the entry into middle school is one of the most difficult. During this period, it is crucial for schools and families to work together in order to establish a constructive framework that can foster positive development. This article discusses the important academic, so...

Members of the clergy provide a great deal of counseling. How did this come about? How are they prepared for this role? In what capacity is this role played by rabbis? Do rabbis feel their training is adequate for what they are called upon to do? What are the implications of this for both education and professional development of rabbis? This artic...

Youth today often face challenges that can undermine important opportunities to achieve their full potential in school, in the workplace, in relationships, and within themselves. This article reviews the literature addressing certain personal qualities that have shown promise in the promotion of youth resilience against such threats. More specifica...

It is important to note that while we acknowledge the centrality of the five developmental arenas reviewed earlier, there may be other developmentally linked areas of change that would impact on implementation efforts. For interventions to succeed, a convergence of a large number of what are essentially developmental influences must take place. Con...

Action research is well grounded in the worlds of organizational and community psychology. The practice of action research within each of these fields has been shaped by their dominant settings, theories, and values; where these diverge, rich learning opportunities have been created. Each phase of the action research cycle has particular challenges...

Students today must be prepared not only to pass tests at school but also to pass the tests of life. Social-emotional competence and academic achievement are highly related, and effective schools are focusing efforts on integrated, coordinated instruction in both areas to maximize students' potential to succeed in school and throughout their lives....

Questioning-asking has not only long been seen as a central component of Jewish educational practice but has also been thought to be part of a broader culture of Judaism. In this article, we apply cognitive-developmental theories to advance the discussion of the use of questioning in Jewish education. Such theories allow Jewish educators to more fu...

The intended audience is upper-level undergraduate students and graduate students in psychology and related fields. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Educators have come to recognize the importance of their efforts in building students' social and emotional skills. However, the creation of lasting programming often fails to keep pace with educators' best intentions. In this article, the authors suggest guidelines for ways in which school counselors can be involved in implementing sustained socia...

Educators have come to recognize the importance of their efforts in building students' social and emotional skills. However, the creation of lasting programming often fails to keep pace with educators' best intentions. In this article, the authors suggest guidelines for ways in which school counselors can be involved in implementing sustained socia...

The Laws of Life is an international essay contest and social and emotional learning (SEL) initiative that many school districts use to build students' SEL and related abilities. In the contest, students reflect on their identities--who they are, who they want to become, and what they want their lives to stand for--by writing about the main values...