A 2022 Erasmus+ report on The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Mental Health of Young People noted the substantial mental health and social emotional wellbeing challenges faced by European young people. The authors of the report recommended a continuation of all policies put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic to promote youth social emotional wellbeing with a special focus on school-based SEL programming. One such SEL focused program is PROMEHS – the Promoting Mental Health at Schools – program (Cefai, et al., 2022). PROMEHS is an evidence-based program that emphasises improving the living conditions and environments that support mental health within the school context to allow children, school staff, families, and communities to adopt and maintain optimal emotional functioning. SEL programs, like PROMEHS, require high-quality, well aligned assessments to document its effectiveness and drive data-based improvements.
This special issue of IJEE was stimulated by an examination of how social emotional assessments are an essential component in evidence based SEL programs. Furthermore, well developed and validated measures are needed to promote a thriving research base for school-based prevention and intervention programs targeting children’s social emotion behaviour. Yet, developing and validating SEL assessments is challenging in the European context considering the wide array of languages and cultures represented on the continent. Against this backdrop, it is not optimal to merely develop one version of a measure and translate it into different languages without attention to the varying cultural specifics that may affect the expression of SEL in culturally specific ways. Yet, translation and linkage of assessment across countries and cultures is necessary to promote cross-country comparisons and SEL-focused collaborations for promoting the wellbeing of all European children.
In this thematic issue, we examine the use of the SSIS SEL Brief Scales and how SEL assessment practices in European countries can guide the implementation and use of programs that support children’s social emotional health. The PROMEHS project demonstrated the role the SSIS SEL Brief Scales can play in the implementation and evaluation of such programs, but like any good project, it presented new questions about assessment to drive both more research and future practices. Thus, with this special issue, we want to highlight avenues for future research and development as well as highlight exemplary promising measures for continued future research and development. Some of the major questions/themes we anticipate featuring are:
- What is the status of SEL assessment in Europe? What measures exist, are translated and validated for use in multiple countries, and are widely used?
- How are these measures used? Are they used exclusively for research? If not, what applications are they used to address in European schools?
- What barriers exist for scientific SEL measurement development and usage in Europe and how can these challenges be met with future research and development?
- Are any particular measures of great promise in meeting SEL assessment needs in Europe?
Papers (no longer than 7000 words) may be submitted until 15 October 2023 through the normal Journal’s submission procedures online. Guidelines for authors may be found online. IJEE is an indexed open access journal with no charges for authors.
If authors wish, they may submit a 1-2 page letter of intent describing the content of proposed papers and fit with the themes of the special issue by 15 July 2023. Although letters of intent are not required, the guest editors will read all letters of intent and give feedback on fit with the themes of the special issue. To submit letters of intent, please send an email with the attached letter of intent.
For further information please contact Ms Natalie Galea.
Guest Co-Editors: Christopher J. Anthony, Ilaria Grazzani, Stephen N. Elliott & Valeria Cavioni