SEL and Mental Health

May is Mental Health month. In a year where mental health stressors have arrived at the forefront for both students and adults, the role SEL can play in mental health outcomes is worth examining.

Even in “regular” (i.e. pre-pandemic) times, SEL and mental health were considered intertwined. In a brief prepared by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) in collaboration with The National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention, Connecting Social and Emotional Learning with Mental Health, the organization asserts that “Addressing children’s mental health is critical for school and life success. Social and emotional learning programming, when implemented with fidelity and integrated into the fabric of the school and community, provides students with the skills they need to be successful within an environment that promotes their physical and emotional safety and well-being.” However, in the extraordinary circumstances of a global pandemic, social emotional learning tops of the list of recommendations for classroom educators for what they can do to best support students’ mental health during COVID.

But, why should that be the focus? While the answer is not truly linear, the CASEL brief outlines the cumulative positive effects of robust SEL programs. By increasing the number of tools a student has to both identify and navigate periods of stress and challenge, their ability to be flexible and resilient increases, and ultimately, mental health interventions become less frequent. According to CASEL, “SEL programming may reduce the number of students who require early intervention, because participation in SEL programs fosters in children the skills they will need to cope with life’s challenges and helps teachers manage their classrooms in ways that promote interest and engagement, all within a caring school environment.”

Participants work together to accomplish goals, enhance communication skills, and strengthen relationships with peers and adults through experiential learning led by PBC facilitators.

At PBC, our experienced facilitators work with students to hone social emotional skills through experiential and adventure education. This approach to teaching SEL - markedly different in practice from most classroom- and school-based SEL initiatives - was recently studied in a group of students in the UK who were all classified as having social, emotional, or behavioral difficulties – arguably among those most in need of mental health supports. The researcher concluded that outdoor and adventure education may offer additional benefits above and beyond those of the classroom efforts, because “as students engaged in outdoor learning activities, they used core SEL skills in combination rather than in isolation. This may differ in – and be an advantage over — how students use SEL skills in classroom-based programs. Another distinct advantage of outdoor SEL intervention programs is the reliance on group work, which provides students with opportunities for developing effective social interactions, communication and relationships.”

Supporting mental health can’t just be focused on screen-free time, or mindfulness, or connecting struggling students with school counselors and therapists. The evidence suggests that incorporating SEL is key to improved mental health outcomes for youth, especially with COVID not yet behind us.

SEL and the Outdoors

The focus on social-emotional learning (SEL) at the Princeton-Blairstown Center is in everything we do. As an outdoor, adventure, and experiential education-focused organization, it means that SEL is the thread that ties all of our activities and programs together. For this Earth Month edition of Compass Points, we considered the many natural intersections of social-emotional learning and our outdoor and environmental programming.

Research published in the Journal of Adolescence studied an Outward Bound group’s experience with SEL and highlighted the program’s positive impacts on the students’ ability to “successfully endure distress and a process of experimenting with new mindsets that helped them rise above their anxiety and distress…and found that peers provided skillful and responsive on-the-spot support that motivated youth, helped them succeed, and scaffolded students’ learning strategies for dealing with physical, social, and emotional challenges.” The novel situations brought about by adventure education, and the fear and anxiety that accompany almost all situations that involve the new and unknown, can be used as perfect jumping-off points for experienced facilitators to dive into emotions and mindset shifts with outdoor education participants. The coping skills, strategies, and tactics that come out of those discussions can then be translated to classroom learning and beyond.

A research survey compiled by Green Schoolyards America asserts that “fewer, longer sessions of outdoor learning (education outside the classroom) are more beneficial than more frequent, shorter sessions and lead to improved pro-social behaviors among students.” This is another strength of organizations like PBC, which can - and do! - structure most participant activities around the experience of being in the out-of-doors. Sharing experiences in that space, along with thinking and learning in that context with peers, can offer new and different perspectives for any member of modern society, particularly one which seems increasingly expected to spend the majority of its time indoors. 

Also noted in the Green Schoolyards piece is that “blended learning that combines traditional education with forest school or other models of outdoor curricula enhances children’s social interaction skills, builds confidence, promotes problem-solving and independence, builds negotiation skills, and supports creativity.” In this year of extraordinary disruption to all areas of society, we have been fortunate to offer two full semesters of Wilderness Leadership School (WLS) for local students, at a time when our regular partners were unable to attend on-campus programs. WLS offered a weekly all-outdoor, full-day learning format, compounding the social-emotional learning opportunities such curricula can provide to a group of students whose traditional learning and extracurricular activities have been disrupted in unprecedented ways. In providing for public health and safety considerations, we were able to tap into both the healing power of nature and the many opportunities for increased learning, health, and future success that outdoor learning provides.

If the pandemic has reinforced anything for those of us in the outdoor and adventure education field, it might be that before, we could agree that these experiences were important – now, we can all loudly assert that they are not merely important, but in fact critical to the development of the social-emotional skills that enhance the grit, resilience, and overall success of all people.

Ready to Climb!

Most of us are familiar with the adage “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” While the origin of this statement is unclear, it is a fine example of the kind of impact even basic experiential education can offer.

The Association for Experiential Education (AEE), of which the Center is a member, defines experiential education as “challenge and experience followed by reflection leading to learning and growth.”  Every day at our Blairstown Campus, our facilitators work with students and their chaperones to provide intentionally designed opportunities for challenge and experience. Facilitators are trained to reflect on the experience afterwards and to help students relate what they learned through the activity to their daily life in the classroom and at home. During an early Girls’ Adventure and Leadership Weekend, Emily, a shy eighth grader, experienced this first-hand when she agreed to climb up the vertical playpen on the climbing tower. When the girls in Emily’s group headed off to the climbing tower to don their equipment and tackle the three-story structure, she dutifully strapped on the required harness and helmet.  And she watched. She watched girl after girl say, “ready to climb!” and make her way up the tower – those who were fearless went all the way to the top, and those who proclaimed themselves to be scared of heights, but climbed further than they thought possible. But, every time a facilitator asked Emily to climb, she said “no thanks.” Chyann was the facilitator with Emily’s group and was kind but persistent in asking. Each time Emily said no, Chyann asked, “are you sure?” and Emily would shrug her shoulders.

Finally, the last girl finished her climb and Chyann announced it was almost time to head back, with one last questioning look at Emily. She gave Chyann a slight nod and the whole group erupted with cheers as they realized their friend was going to climb! Along with a friend as a climbing partner, Emily got about half way up the tower. She turned around with a giant smile and look of accomplishment for her friends on the ground. Once back on the ground, Chyann talked with the group about the experience of climbing up the tower and how it related to their everyday lives. The girls who were originally afraid of heights talked about how having the harnesses and friends belaying on the ground made them feel less afraid to start to climb and how when they are at home, they can take a chance on something that might be a little scary if they have support around them. According to the article, Tapping the Hidden Team-Building Power of Ropes Courses, in addition to providing the opportunity to test physical skill, when well-facilitated, the ropes-course experience also provides other opportunities for growth, such as introspection, confidence building, self-awareness, and team building.

For Emily, throughout the rest of the weekend, she had a spring in her step and was much more vocal during group activities. She was already showing improved self-esteem that weekend by speaking up when one of her cabin mates pushed ahead of her in the line for dinner. Her chaperone reports that when she sees Emily holding back in group settings, she can offer a little nudge by asking, “Ready to climb?” and Emily smiles and steps up to speak her mind.