Program and delivery characteristics moderate SEL effects: implementation quality, duration, skill practice, and delivery agent¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · review r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2023 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 2 of 2 entries) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Moderation analyses indicate higher implementation quality relates to more significant outcomes, and the most effective secondary programs were longer, included insight building and problem-solving, provided in-session skill practice, and involved the entire school staff. → Greenberg 2023 q2 i? In preschool meta-analyses, effects were stronger for family and school interventions and weaker when provided by a classroom teacher alone. → Greenberg 2023 (2)

Evidence¶

Greenberg 2023¶

Greenberg, M. T. (2023). Evidence for social and emotional learning in schools. Learning Policy Institute. https://doi.org/10.54300/928.269

q2 · i? · review · r2

Narrative summary of the Mertens et al. meta-analysis of 104 secondary-school studies (1979–2019, over half outside the United States); moderator analyses identified duration, insight building, practice, and whole-staff involvement as effective features.

"Moderator analyses indicated that the most effective programs were those that were longer in duration and included insight building (self-awareness) and problem-solving, those that provided opportunities for students to practice skills during the sessions, and those that involved the entire school staff."

Greenberg 2023 (2)¶

Greenberg, M. T. (2023). Evidence for social and emotional learning in schools. Learning Policy Institute. https://doi.org/10.54300/928.269

q2 · i? · review · r2

Narrative summary of the Luo et al. meta-analysis of 33 preschool studies (ages 3–5, through 2018); the report also notes stronger experimental designs yielded somewhat lower effect sizes.

"Like Murano's findings, the effects were stronger when they involved family and school interventions, and the effects were weaker when provided by a classroom teacher."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Universal school-based SEL programs improve students' behaviour, with a small and, in recent randomised trials, negligible effect on academic achievement — related
• SEL programs improve social emotional skills — related
• Social-emotional learning benefits persist at follow-up — related
• The review identifies a trend linking AI intervention duration to effect size: longer interventions spanning weeks or months yield larger effect sizes than shorter ones — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Most reviewed SEL studies did not test diversity characteristics as moderators, and those that did found inconsistent moderation effects — related
• Programme characteristics — longer duration, higher frequency, teacher delivery and older students — were tentatively associated with more significant well-being effects — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Implementation quality, shorter program duration, and community-based delivery are associated with lower dropout among treated students — related
• Too few studies exist to draw robust conclusions on moderating factors (age, gender, screen size, dosage, SAMR-based activities) or on whether benefits persist beyond the post-test — related
• Sample characteristics (immigrant/minority status, L2 status, age) show no significant moderator effects, and several program and delivery features are also nonsignificant — reports the opposite
• Example-based instructional activities yield larger effects when delivered jointly by ICT and teachers than by teachers alone — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• No coded study characteristics moderated the emotion–political learning associations in Bayesian regularized meta-analysis — related
• Descriptively, larger effects were associated with control groups, secondary-level teachers, indicated samples, cognitive-behavioural content, teacher-specific adaptation, group format, school delivery, and programs over one week — related