Promoting Children's Social Emotional Learning in Conflict-Affected Settings: Evidence for Action in Niger

• In Event: 2-021 - Impacts and moderators of school-based social-emotional learning programs in low- and middle-income countries

Integrative Statement

Background
The world currently faces the largest refugee crisis since WWII (UNHCR, 2016). This increasing population of refugee children has often experienced unspeakable adversities and are growing up in unpredictable and low-resource environment that can hamper their healthy social-emotional development (Shonkoff et al., 2012; Sirin & Roger-Sirin, 2015). Quality education with social-emotional learning (SEL) support has been shown to have measurable effects on improving children’s social-emotional and academic outcomes in the US (Durlak et al., 2011). But designing and implementing such programs are challenging in conflict-affected settings with low-resource highly-mobile populations, such as Nigerian and Nigerien children fleeing from violence of Boko Haram attacks. Embedding low-cost programs targeting specific foundational developmental SEL skills, as complements to a high-quality education program maybe a strategy to maximize efficiency in program delivery and support holistic development of refugee children in conflict-affected contexts.

Intervention
During the 2016-2017 school year, an international non-profit organization delivered a tutoring program to 30 schools (1800 children) in Boko Haram-affected Diffa region in Niger, which provided basic education designed to accommodate the unique learning needs of children exposed to armed conflict. In 15 randomly-selected schools (900 children), two low-cost targeted (LCT) 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.

Research questions

(1) Does the 3-month implementation of LCT Mindfulness program (Cycle 1) improve children’s social-emotional outcomes?
(2) Does the full-year implementation of LCT SEL programs (Mindfulness, Brain Games) improve children’s social-emotional outcomes?
Methods
Students were individually assessed through verbal interviews by trained local assessors three times across the academic year. Data were collected on children’s: (1) executive function by teacher and assessor report (Jones et al., 2015; Smith-Donald et al., 2007), and by tablet-based direct assessment (Hamoudi & Sheridan, 2016), (2) emotional and behavioral regulation difficulties and prosocial behavior (Goodman, 1997), (3) school-related stress and stress response (Connor-Smith et al., 2000) and (3) scenario-based assessments of emotion dysregulation (di Guinta et al., 2017) and aggression (Dodge et al., 2015).

Results
The preliminary analyses of Cycle 1 impacts suggest that access to LIHC programming with LCT Mindfulness, significantly improved Nigerian and Nigerien children’s executive function (b=-.10, p<.05) and reduced levels of school-related stress (b=-.35, p<.001), dysregulated expression of sadness (b=-.26, p<.001) and aggression (b=-.17, p<.01). Preliminary analyses of full-year program impacts suggest that additional SEL programs (Mindfulness and Brain Games) reduced children’s levels of school-related stress (b=-.21, p<.001), hostile attribution bias (b=-.08, p<.05), dysregulated expression of anger (b=-.12, p< .05) and sadness (b=-.13, p<.05). The final presentation will include updated impact estimates with more rigorous measurement modeling and multiply imputed datasets.

Discussion
This trial provides the first rigorous evidence of whether and how classroom-based SEL programs can bolster children’s social-emotional development in conflict-affected contexts. Mixed impact findings highlight the needs for an iterative evidence-based program design process that allow informed adaptation of programs and practice to best support children’s needs in culturally, contextually, and developmentally appropriate ways.

Authors

• Ha Yeon Kim, Global TIES for Children, New York University
  Presenting Author

• Lindsay Brown, Global TIES for Children, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mayari Montes De Oca, Global TIES for Children, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jeannie Annan, International Rescue Committee
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lawrence J. Aber, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author