Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Having well-developed social-emotional skills can help young people avoid or overcome difficulties like struggles in school, mental health issues, substance abuse problems, and getting involved in violence. However, many young people still lack these important skills, and the challenges seem to have gotten worse since the COVID-19 pandemic. Research clearly shows that not having strong social-emotional abilities in elementary school is linked to a range of negative outcomes that can last well into adulthood. Accordingly, building social-emotional skills in children in kindergarten through 5th grade is key to helping them successfully transition into their teenage years and adulthood.This proposed project aims to evaluate a new elementary school version of a program called Sources of Strength in six rural schools in Northeast Colorado. The version for older students is widely used across the United States and has been proven effective in several rigorous studies at improving academics, social skills, and behavior in teenagers. The elementary version takes the same strengths-based approach but focuses on improving social-emotional learning skills in students and staff, as well as the overall school environment.The goals are: 1) Implement Sources in 6 regional schools to build social-emotional competence in students and staff, create positive school climates, and reduce risks like academic issues, violence, substance abuse, and mental health problems; 2) Set up the necessary support systems in each school for Sources to be implemented effectively and sustained; and 3) Assess the impact of Sources on social-emotional skills, school climate, and risky behaviors, looking at differences across race, ethnicity, age, and gender. Researchers will provide training and technical assistance to help schools implement and sustain the program effectively throughout the project in addition to the training and coaching provided by Sources directly to staff in each participating school.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
50%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Well-developed social-emotional competencies can empower young people to avoid or overcome difficulties like academic challenges, mental health and substance use issues, and violence involvement. However, social-emotional skill deficits remain common in young children, with evidence signaling heightened challenges since the Covid-19 pandemic. Evidence consistently demonstrates that deficits in these skills, especially at the elementary school level, are associated with a range of negative developmental outcomes that can persist well into adulthood. Thus, early intervention and development of social-emotional skills in grades K-5 is key to successful transitions into adolescence and adulthood. The purpose of this proposed project is to evaluate the newly developed elementary school version of Sources of Strength (Sources) in six rural schools in Northeast Colorado. The secondary version of Sources is widely implemented across the United States and has demonstrated significant impact on adolescents' academic, social, and behavioral success in several rigorous evaluation studies. The elementary school version is an extension of the strengths-based approach of the secondary version and focuses on enhancing students' and staffs' SEL skills and capacities and improving school climate overall.Project objectives include: 1) Implement Sources in 6 regional schools to promote social-emotional competence among students and staff, build positive school climates, and reduce risk for academic challenges, violence involvement, substance misuse, and mental health issues; 2) Build the necessary infrastructure to support effective implementation of Sources in each school; and 3) Assess the impact of Sources on SEL competencies, school climate, and risk behaviors and examine differences for each outcome by race, ethnicity, age, and gender. The CSU Prevention Research Center will supplement the program-specific training and technical assistance (T/TA) provided by Sources to build the necessary infrastructure for effective implementation and sustainability.
Project Methods
The Sources elementary curriculum was iteratively developed using feedback from teachers, counselors, and SEL experts. It applies the same strength-based protective factor approach as the secondary program, while changing the delivery method to a universal classroom-based approach. Sources uses an evidence-based coaching model that focuses on empowering staff to understand and communicate the material to colleagues through professional development, which embeds the curriculum's concepts of building resilience and SEL skills into the school culture. The coaching approach also enables schools to create a support network for continued implementation. This facilitates positive school climates and ensures instructors have regular check-ins to support effective, sustained, strength-based implementation. In addition to the distinctive coaching framework, curriculum consists of 12 selectively chosen units intended to cover various youth development topics while emphasizing the range of strengths students can leverage to develop resilience.For Objectives 1 and 3, classroom teachers in all six participating schools will complete assessments in the fall and spring semesters in each year of the project to assess student and staff SEL, school climate, and student risk behaviors. In addition to their own demographic characteristics, teachers will report on each student in their classroom individually (for the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire & Teacher Perception of Students' SEL) as well as on their own SEL capacities and perceptions of school climate. When reporting on students individually, teachers will provide student demographic characteristics (race/ethnicity, gender, and age) so that results can be examined across different student subpopulations. School records will be used to assess disciplinary infractions as an additional student behavior measure. Reports of substance use will be tracked using these records. However, because of the relatively young age of the targeted youth, it is unlikely program effects on substance use will be found during the 3-year project. To analyze the data for Objectives 1 and 3, we will employ a repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). The repeated measures ANOVA will allow us to examine changes in each outcome over time, with measurements taken in the fall and spring semesters of each project year. By including dummy coded control variables for each school, we can account for the nested data structure, where students are clustered within classrooms and classrooms are clustered within schools. This approach will help us accurately estimate the program effects while accounting for potential school-level differences that may influence the outcomes of interest.For Objective 2, the project aims to support all implementing schools by providing T/TA on best practices for evidence-based prevention implementation process through tailored research-to-practice tools and online learning modules. This goal is achieved by supporting schools with high-quality TA. Performance data used to evaluate this objective will include the number of school staff and administrators served, participant satisfaction, knowledge gained, and reports of how the research-to-practice tools and concepts were applied in each school.