(PS9-96) Perspectives on a Community-based, Social Emotional Learning Intervention to Increase Access to Evidence Based Preventive Mental Health Interventions via After School Programming

Existing research has shown that youth with greater social emotional skills perform better academically, reporter greater friendships and limited research has suggested that these benefits may also carry over to reduce internalizing and externalizing behaviors in children. Previous studies of social emotional learning (SEL) interventions have shown effectiveness in school settings, but there is limited research on SEL interventions outside of school settings. The present work sought to explore the effectiveness of SEL programs in after school and community settings by implementing an SEL intervention based on the Merrell’s Strong Start and Strong Kids curriculum, adapted for brevity and time. The goal of the intervention was to target youth in grades k-8th who evinced behavioral challenges and engaged them in the intervention which focused on identifying emotions through body and social cues, improving problem solving skills, and learning coping skills. The program lasted for six weeks with one session occurring each week for a total of six sessions. Sessions lasted between 35-45 minutes and were conducted in groups composing of between six to eight students. The curricula were delivered in a community service organization and administered by clinical psychology doctoral fellows and social workers. 121 youth participated in the intervention (mean age = 8.43, SD = 2.37). Boys made up the majority of participants N= 67 and N= 53 girls. Students were identified by staff at the community organization and screened for participation utilizing a social emotional screener developed for the program and adapted from the Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener (SAEBRS). Students who scored above the minimum cutoff and below the maximum cutoff were invited to participate in the group sessions. Prior to the first session, organization staff who knew the students well completed the Devereux Student Strengths Assessment, to assess social-emotional competence. This assessment was readministered as a post-test following group completion. Data analyses were performed in SPSS. Descriptive analyses indicated that the majority of youth screened were experiencing significant internalizing symptoms and emotion dysregulation challenges, less so than social deficits-as measured by the screener. Correlational analyses revealed that students whose staff members reported that they were experiencing the greatest internalizing symptoms also scored highest on pre-tests (indicative of greater social-emotional difficulties). Further, social skills difficulties were significantly correlated to internalizing problems, and emotion dysregulation (p > .05). Overall, pre-posts revealed statistically significant improvement to social emotional skills. Notably, larger improvement was observed for participants who scored the highest on the pre-test. These results show the effectiveness and benefit of implementing SEL programs in community-based afterschool programs. We discuss clinical and policy implications related to the use of brief, CBT preventive interventions as a means to reduce the likelihood of future significant mental health disorders.