SEL Skills in Youth in Returning to School

Format

Individual Presentation

First Presenter's Institution

Richmond County School System

First Presenter’s Email Address

hudsogi@boe.richmond.k12.ga.us

First Presenter's Brief Biography

Dr. Gina Hudson is Nationally Certified School Psychologist. She has a PhD in Educational Psychology from The University of Alabama, and has been a school psychologist for Richmond County for 14 years. Her current role is the Coordinator of Support Services which entails overseeing of the school psychologists, planning and implementation of social emotional learning initiatives, RTI/SST, and organizing mental health procedures and supports for the district. Gina moved to Augusta in 2003 after completing her school work in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, but hails from northeast Pennsylvania. She has completed some teaching at the university level at Augusta State University and Arkansas State University. She currently resides in Evans, Georgia with her husband and three children.

Second Presenter's Institution

Richmond County School System

Second Presenter’s Email Address

johanma@boe.richmond.k12.ga.us

Second Presenter's Brief Biography

I started my career in Education as a high school ELA teacher but decided to go back to school to become a school counselor. I spent 15 years here in Richmond County in that role before moving to the central office to serve as the District Testing Coordinator for 4 years and have now been the Asst. Director of Student Services for the past year and currently work to support all school counselors, work with master scheduling and assist with testing, student records and student registration. Since moving to the district office, I do miss working directly with students and parents, but I thoroughly enjoy assisting school-based counselors and administrators as they continue work on the front lines! I have my B.A. in English, M.Ed. in Counselor Education and Ed. S. in Leadership from Augusta University.

Third Presenter's Institution

Augusta University

Third Presenter’s Email Address

mbrown4@augusta.edu

Third Presenter's Brief Biography

Dr. Margaux H. Brown is a Licensed Professional Counselor and a Certified Professional Counselor Supervisor in Georgia. She has a PhD in Counseling from The George Washington University in Washington, DC, and has been a counselor for 13 years. She has worked in community, school, university, and hospital settings. Currently she is an Assistant Professor of Counselor Education at Augusta University where she supervises counselor-trainees and teaches graduate courses in ethics, group counseling, school counseling, and trauma and crisis counseling. She is also a telehealth counselor in private practice serving clients in Georgia and expats living abroad who are experiencing anxiety, depression, grief, loss, and life transitions. Prior to becoming a counselor, Dr. Brown was a special educator in the Washington, DC area, and she also taught primary school in Kenya for a year. She earned her undergraduate degree in English from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. Dr. Brown has published original research in peer-reviewed journals, written chapters in peer-reviewed edited books, and presented nationally and internationally on school counseling, diversity issues, and youth with disabilities. She is the recent past editor of the GSCA Journal, the peer-reviewed scholarly journal for the Georgia School Counselor Association. She consults with a local school districts to improve school safety and mental health services, and she regularly conducts trainings in local schools. She is a Georgia native and currently resides in Augusta, Georgia with her husband and two children. As a family, they enjoy bike rides and playing tennis.

Location

Session Four Breakouts

Strand #1

Heart: Social & Emotional Skills

Strand #2

Health: Mental & Physical Health

Relevance

The paper/poster focuses on student social emotional skills and intervention strategies and processes put into place in order to address the social emotional difficulties students are facing after a pandemic. Research consistently shows that quarantine increases levels of stress which results in both physical and mental health issues in children and adolescents. Bolstering student's social emotional skills can increase positive factors for resilience and coping. For these reasons, the Heart and Health strands were chosen.

Brief Program Description

This presentation identifies student perceptions of socio-emotional skills after a pandemic and provides strategies and practices used by school support staff to identify and increase skills in the areas of need. Strategies include the use of mental health teams and evidence based intervention materials. Results of a district-wide screening indicated students voiced positive gains in the areas of supportive relationships and self-efficacy in grades 3-12. Teachers identified the greatest increase in student's self-management skills.

Summary

Social distancing during quarantine has been shown to have negative effects on psychological health (Brooks et al, 2020). Schools play a vital role in providing effective interventions (Ye, 2020) and school routines are important coping mechanisms for young people with mental health issues (Lee, 2020). This poster will discuss student perceptions of social emotional skills following a pandemic. Preliminary data suggests that students in grades 3 through 5 have a stronger sense of social awareness and growth mindset. However, these areas were much lower amongst 6th through 12th grade students. Both groups indicated poorest favorability for emotion regulation and self-efficacy. And, in line with research on vulnerability and the increased worry when faced with crisis (Guessoum et al, 2020; Helm et al, 2020), female students across grade levels had poorer self-perceptions than males. While it is unknown what student perceptions were prior to the pandemic, we know that quarantine and social distancing policies will have long term effects and quarantine increases stress during pandemic which often results in emotional instability in children (Ye, 2020). Therefore, focusing on emotion regulation and self-efficacy are of utmost importance to target during intervention. Based on the results of the data and recommendations from the World Health Organization (2020) for adolescents to develop strategies for emotional regulation to cope with stress, the district has developed strategies and practices for district support staff to address the socio-emotional needs of the students in both virtual and in person learning environments. The End of Year Benchmark provided information about the effectiveness of the practices implemented. It was hypothesized that intervention and social connectedness would increase student self-perceptions of their social-emotional skills. Findings indicated students voiced gains in the areas of self-efficacy (3-12), supportive relationships (3-12) and emotional regulation (6-12). Teachers identified increases in self-management for students in grades PK - 2; but the opposite was found for older school-aged children. There were noted decreases in social awareness across grade levels.

Evidence

Ye, J. (2020). Pediatric Mental and Behavioral Health in the Period of Quarantine and Social Distancing With COVID-19. JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting. http://pediatrics.jmir.org/2020/2/e19867/

Sprang, G., Silman, M., 2013. Posttraumatic stress disorder in parents and youth after health-related disasters. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness 7 (1),105–110. https://doi.org/10.1017/dmp.2013.22

Guessoum, SB, Lachal, J, Radjack, R, Carretier, E, Minassian, S, Benoit, L, & Morro, MR. (2020). Adolescent psychiatric disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. Psychiatry Research 291; 113264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113264

Brooks SK, Webster RK, Smith LE, Woodland L, Wessely S, Greenberg N, Rubin GJ (2020) The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence. Lancet 395(10227):912–920. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140 -6736(20)30460-8

WHO (2020) June 4. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Situation Report–136. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200604-covid-19-sitrep-136.pdf?sfvrsn=fd36550b_2

Armitage R, Nellums LB (2020) Considering inequalities in the school closure response to COVID-19. Lancet Glob Health. https ://doi.org/10.1016/s2214-109x(20)30116-9

Learning Objective 1

Participants will be able to see the impact of addressing social emotional skills has on student functioning

Learning Objective 2

Participants will be able to identify areas of intervention in terms of SEL

Learning Objective 3

Participants will be able to take home ideas for intervention and support that can be implemented in their schools and/or classrooms

Keyword Descriptors

SEL, Mental Health, pandemic

Presentation Year

2022

Start Date

3-8-2022 8:30 AM

End Date

3-8-2022 9:45 AM

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Mar 8th, 8:30 AM Mar 8th, 9:45 AM

SEL Skills in Youth in Returning to School

Session Four Breakouts

This presentation identifies student perceptions of socio-emotional skills after a pandemic and provides strategies and practices used by school support staff to identify and increase skills in the areas of need. Strategies include the use of mental health teams and evidence based intervention materials. Results of a district-wide screening indicated students voiced positive gains in the areas of supportive relationships and self-efficacy in grades 3-12. Teachers identified the greatest increase in student's self-management skills.