SEL programs implemented well show positive impacts on targeted skills and academic outcomes, including meta-analytic support¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2023 · checked against its sources 2026-10-27 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Multi-country meta-analytic studies indicate largely positive effects of SEL programs on academic outcomes and long-lasting impacts on socio-emotional skills and high school graduation rates. → Madeline B. Harms and Sherona D. Garrett-Ruffin 2023

Evidence¶

Madeline B. Harms and Sherona D. Garrett-Ruffin 2023¶

Madeline B. Harms and Sherona D. Garrett-Ruffin. (2023). Disrupting links between poverty, chronic stress, and educational inequality. npj Science of Learning 8:50. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-023-00199-2

q3 · i? · review · r2

Narrative review citing multiple meta-analytic studies of school-based SEL: the review reports "largely positive effects" on academic outcomes and long-lasting impacts on socio-emotional skills and graduation rates. No effect sizes are printed in the review text.

"Multi-country meta-analytic studies also indicate largely positive effects of SEL programs on both academic outcomes 62 and long-lasting impacts on socio-emotional skills and high school graduation rates 63."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Emotional Intelligence — outcome: instruction changes it

Related Claims¶

• Social-emotional learning benefits persist at follow-up — related
• Social and emotional learning programs promote competencies, reduce behavior problems, and improve engagement and achievement, with sustained longer-term benefits — related
• Universal school-based SEL programs improve students' behaviour, with a small and, in recent randomised trials, negligible effect on academic achievement — reports the opposite
• SEL programs improve social emotional skills — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• SEL interventions improve attitudes, self-regulation, behaviour, and academic performance across reported effect-size ranges — related
• Schoolwide SEL programs are associated with long-term achievement gains, with multiple meta-analyses estimating an 11-percentile-point gain on average for participating students — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• SEL programs improve students' engagement and academic performance, with an 11-percentile-point achievement gain in the Durlak meta-analysis — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Program and delivery characteristics moderate SEL effects: implementation quality, duration, skill practice, and delivery agent — related
• Universal school-based SEL programs produce statistically significant positive effects on social-emotional and related outcomes, per two comprehensive meta-analyses — a broader claim this one bears on
• Universal school intervention programs typically show small average effect sizes, with median effects between d = 0.07 and d = 0.16 per a cited review of 74 meta-analyses — related