Vulnerable or Susceptible? Universal Social-Emotional Program Impacts on Girls and Refugees in Boko Haram-affected Niger

• In Event: Refugee education: SEL and language interventions for learning

Proposal

Background
In 2015, violent attacks by Boko Haram caused Nigerian refugees and internally-displaced Nigeriens to seek protection in Niger’s Diffa region. Such children affected by violence and conflict often experience unspeakable adversities that can hamper healthy development . Despite strong evidence of positive impacts of social-emotional learning (SEL) support on children’s social-emotional outcomes in the US , little is known whether such programs can provide much-needed support in conflict-affected settings and for the most vulnerable populations, e.g., girls and refugee children. This study reports the impacts of low-cost, school-based SEL programs and impact variation by gender and refugee status.

Intervention and Design
During the 2016-2017 school year, the International Rescue Committee delivered after-school academic tutoring to 30 schools (1795 children) in Diffa, Niger. In 15 randomly-selected schools (900 children), two low-cost, targeted SEL programs were sequentially implemented: Mindfulness (Cycle 1), designed to target emotion and stress regulation, and Brain Games (Cycle 2), targeting core executive functioning skills―working memory, attention, and inhibitory control.

Methods
Students were individually assessed by trained local assessors three times across the academic year. Data were collected on children’s: (1) executive function , tablet-based direct assessment , (2) emotional and behavioral regulation and prosocial behavior , (3) school-related stress and stress response and (3) scenario-based assessments of hostile attribution bias, emotion dysregulation, and aggression .

Results
The analyses of Cycle 1 main impacts suggest that access to the Mindfulness intervention, significantly reduced children’s dysregulated expression of sadness (b=-.38, p<.01) and aggression (b=-.28, p<.05). Generally, girls benefitted more from the Mindfulness intervention than boys, with girls reporting higher levels of school-related stress reduction (b=-.43, p<.05), decreased sadness dysregulation (b=-.61, p<.01) and aggression (b=-.50, p<.01). Boys in the Mindfulness program showed improvement in numeracy skills compared to girls. Additionally, refugee and non-refugee students benefitted from Mindfulness differentially. That is, refugee children in the Mindfulness program had larger gains in cognitive skills such as numeracy (b=.09, p<.05) and inhibitory control (b=.52, p<.05) than non-refugee children; while non-refugee children showed higher positive impact on emotional and behavioral functioning e.g., decreased sadness dysregulation (-.50, p<.01) and aggression (b=-.49, p<.01).
Full-year implementation of SEL programs (Mindfulness and Brain Games) had no significant main impact on children’s outcomes. When impacts on boys and girls are compared, mindfulness had a significant positive impact on girls’ working memory (b=.29, p>.01) but a negative impact on boys’ (b=-.15, p<.05).

Discussion
Systemic variation in impacts benefitting girls as well as both refugee and non-refugee children in this conflict-affected Nigerien context provides evidence of whether and for whom classroom-based SEL programs can bolster children’s social-emotional development, especially for children whose gender and migration histories may result in elevated risk. These findings inform adaptation of programs and practice to best support all children’s needs in culturally, contextually, and developmentally appropriate ways.

Authors

• Ha Yeon Kim, New York University

• Lindsay Brown, Global TIES for Children, New York University

• Manyari Montes De Oca, New York University

• Jeannie Annan, International Rescue Committee

• Kiruba Murugaiah, International Rescue Committee

• J. Lawrence Aber, New York University Steinhardt