Year in Review: Mental Health and Social Emotional Learning

By Aaron Leo and Kristen C. Wilcox

As the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to disrupt regular school operations into a third year, the mental health of “pandemic children” as well as social-emotional learning opportunities are chief concerns. In this blog, we review NYKids and others’ research on youth and educator mental health as well as strategies to promote social-emotional learning opportunities.

Educational Policy Addressing the Need for Social-Emotional Learning

In a blog written in the spring of 2021, NYKids Researcher and Associate Director of Institutional Research at Siena College, Lisa Yu, discussed the growing attention being paid to students’ mental health and social emotional learning (SEL) opportunities.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Yu notes, state and federal policy reflected an increasing acknowledgment of students’ mental health as a top priority. In 2018, for instance, New York released its SEL benchmarks across K-12 settings and a framework explaining SEL concepts and the need for SEL in school activities and teaching practices. At the federal level, The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) signed in 2015 provided valuable opportunities for a refocusing on SEL. Reflecting on the dramatic impact of the pandemic, Dr. Yu notes that since 2020 “the COVID-19 pandemic has drawn increased attention to children’s social-emotional wellbeing and especially for those most at risk.”

Supporting Children’s Social-Emotional Health in the New School Year

In other 2021 blogs, members of the NYKids research team addressed the growing challenges facing educators in addressing their students’ mental health and strategies which can potentially aid young people struggling with stress, anxiety, and depression.

NYKids Research Assistant Jessie Tobin, in one such blog, discussed the rising levels of crisis situations in schools across the country which can include incidents of school-related violence and trauma. As she writes, “Increased tensions come at a time when school budgets have been reduced, educator job dissatisfaction has reached alarmingly high levels, and there are shortages of mental health professionals in schools across the country.”

The NYKids team has found several important intervention strategies that educators can take to help mitigate the impact of the pandemic on young people’s mental health.

• One strategy drawn from NYKids research on positive-outlier schools is to focus on cultivating positive relationships among peers. One way to do this is by creating opportunities for youth to mentor their younger peers, interact with kids from different backgrounds, and connect with alums.
• Another important strategy is to engage family members and communities through two-way communication strategies to ensure students are supported both in and outside of school.
• Lastly, the use of social-emotional learning (SEL) frameworks such as the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) can be used to focus on the development of a number of skills including self-awareness, self-management, decision-making, relationship, and social awareness.

Drawing Attention to the Mental Health of Educators

NYKids Study of Educator Stress during the Pandemic

Throughout 2021, the NYKids research team conducted a mixed-methods study designed to explore the impact of the pandemic on the educator workforce. The study, Discovering Differential Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Education Workforce, focused on three lines of inquiry: educators’ experiences of stress, levels of job satisfaction, and qualities and facilitators for adaptations in policies, programs, and practices.

Our findings from over 600 educators in 38 schools across New York State indicate that work-related stress and job dissatisfaction increased due to the pandemic, but not equally. Notably, stress and job satisfaction levels differed across schools serving different percentages of students living in poverty. Those on the higher end of the poverty spectrum indicated higher levels of stress and job dissatisfaction than others since the beginning of the pandemic.

NYKids also reported that our next phase of this research aims to better understand how school staff adapt and innovate during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. We plan to recruit 10 schools from the original sample and conduct interviews and focus groups with teachers, support staff, and district and school leaders. Stay tuned for continued results from this study!

Mitigating Educator Stress

In another 2021 blog, Director of Research and Development Kristen C. Wilcox and Research Assistant Jessie Tobin discussed ways to mitigate the stress incurred by educators during the pandemic.

As the authors noted, educators may have experienced a mix of “eagerness and trepidation” as they returned to school in the fall. Yet, in order for educators and school leaders to successfully navigate the beginning of another school year impacted by the pandemic, it was crucial to address mental health. Some strategies they shared:

• Identify the top concerns regarding educators’ well-being and needs for support by engaging in empathy interviews or focus groups.
• Commit to use at least one research-based recommendation such as mindfulness techniques to help staff cope with the effects of stress and secondary traumatic stress

As 2021 comes to a close, we invite you to take a moment to review some of our blog posts and check out our resource page for additional strategies to help address mental health concerns and provide social-emotional learning opportunities.

As always, we thank you for your interest in NYKids and encourage you to reach out to nykids@albany.edu for further insights and direct support needs.