Student Strengths Safari: A Social-Emotional Learning Intervention to Promote Well-Being in Elementary Education

• In Event: Social and Emotional Wellbeing for Differently-abled Individuals and their Families

Abstract

Character strengths fostered in early childhood support healthy adaptation across development. At the same time, subjective well-being (SWB) has remained largely unexplored in early childhood education and disability studies, despite empirical evidence suggesting its value as a protective factor for long-term psychological and cognitive health, positive personality traits, and successful relationships (Cohen & Pressman, 2006; Lyubomirsky et al., 2005). Consequently, a distinct need has emerged for greater focus on school-based SWB with diverse populations. This talk aims to 1) advance understandings of SWB as an important and accessible facilitator of student success in early childhood, and 2) highlight ways in which positive psychology intersects with SEL programming to advance novel implementation and evaluation strategies that can be adapted to fit the needs of diverse student populations across educational contexts.

The Student Strengths Safari© is a multitarget positive psychology program initiated through a design-based mixed methods research (MMR) pilot study to support elementary school-based well-being for students with social-cognitive challenges. The program was implemented in collaboration with teachers and administrators to produce practical strategies for understanding and addressing school-based SWB—operationalized as covitality, or coexisting character strengths linked to optimal student outcomes. Key findings from the present study include evidence of improved teacher-rated executive functioning and student-rated social-emotional health, indicating young neurodivergent children can assess SWB with a valid measurement tool—the Social Emotional Health Survey-Primary (SEHS-P; Furlong et al., 2013)—and subsequently benefit from a brief corresponding intervention.

Design-based research (DBR) promotes ecologically valid practices aligned with the needs of at-risk populations and offers an alternative to the deficit-based model of education (Anderson & Shattuck, 2012). DBR relies on mixed methods to provide a thorough view of the complexities inherent to applied research (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011). Accordingly, this study used an advanced MMR design, through which a convergent core was embedded within an overarching quasi-experiment to analyze three outcomes: (a) self-identified covitality conceptualizations, (b) self-rated covitality levels, and (c) teacher-rated executive functioning. Two classrooms from a suburban private school located outside of D.C. were randomly assigned to the control (n = 14) or intervention (n = 10) condition—1st- and 2nd-grade, respectively. The Student Strengths Safari© program was implemented through eight practices strategically targeted to enhance the character strengths of gratitude, optimism, persistence, and zest. Sessions occurred in 30-min intervals, 2x/week, across four weeks. Synthesis of qualitative, quantitative, and integrated findings revealed that students with social-cognitive challenges were able to grow their conceptualizations of school as a positive socially engaging environment, recognize and identify their own student strengths, and cultivate more nuanced perceptions of positive school experiences, while also demonstrating improved executive functioning following the intervention, compared to students in the control group. Ultimately, this study provided evidence that: (a) young neurodivergent students have the capacity to conceptualize SWB, convey conceptualizations through developmentally appropriate activities, and expand understandings of positive school experiences; and (b) SWB conceptualizations are malleable and can be enhanced when children are afforded opportunities to consider their unique identity development within the context of education.

Author

• Lauren Hunter Naples, Yale School of Medicine
  Presenting Author