Social Emotional Learning (SEL) with Syrian Refugee Children: Impacts of a SEL Curriculum in Lebanon

• In Event: Psychological Interventions to Improve Mental Health and Well-Being of Refugee Children living in Refugee Settlements

Abstract

Refugee children experience profound social-emotional challenges while dealing with memory of war-related violence and navigating unpredictable and conflict-prone environments. Quality education with SEL support has been enthusiastically embraced by the global humanitarian sector as a solution for supporting refugee children’s psychosocial development and adaptation. However, limited evidence is available to understand which and how SEL programming works in crisis settings. This study reports the impacts of a comprehensive SEL curriculum designed to support five core social-emotional skills of Syrian refugee children in Lebanon: brain building, emotion regulation, positive social skills, conflict resolution, and perseverance.
Participants include 4,289 students (age M=9.38, SD=2.27; grade M =2.85, SD =1.61) from 170 classrooms in 57 refugee community sites offered International Rescue Committee’s non-formal remedial education program across Akkar and Bekaa regions. The programming was delivered from November 2017 to May 2018, during which time a cluster-randomized controlled trial was conducted. Of 57 sites, 28 sites were randomly assigned to receive the additional SEL program. The program consists of 30-minute daily, explicit lessons focused on improving the five target skills added onto the HC Basic retention support programming. This program was delivered as a part of a non-formal remedial education program.
Students were individually assessed through verbal interviews by trained local assessors in November and May. Data are collected on children’s: (1) executive function (teacher report , performance-based assessment), (2) emotion identification , and knowledge (scenario-based assessments), (3) teachers’ report on classroom emotional and behavioral regulations and prosocial behavior (4) conflict-resolution skills (scenario-based assessment), (5) behavioral regulation (assessor report), and (3) mental health outcomes including internalizing symptoms and affect (self-report).

We found significant SEL program impacts on some of the targeted SEL skills. Specifically, children in the SEL condition were better able to identify physical manifestations of emotions (Effect Size (ES)=.15, p<.05), and teachers rated them to be able to better regulate their emotions and behavior (ES=.18, p<.05) and display higher prosocial behavior and academic engagement (ES=.18, p<.05) compared to control group children. However, after adjusting for false discovery rate these impacts disappear and we found no impacts on children’s cognitive skills nor in mental health outcomes.
The findings suggest that the HC SEL program has shown promising yet inconclusive impacts on children’s knowledge and awareness and regulation of emotions and behavior, and no impacts on other targeted skills, including cognitive skills and conflict resolution skills. These findings will be used to inform adaptation of programs and practice to best support Syrian refugee children’s holistic development.

Authors

• Ha Yeon Kim, New York University
  Presenting Author

• Lindsay Brown, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Carly Tubbs, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jeannie Annan, International Rescue Committee
  Non-Presenting Author

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