Peer-reviewed article
Supporting mental health and psychosocial wellbeing through social and emotional learning: A participatory study of conflict-affected youth resettled to the U.S.
Lindsay Stark, Mackenzie V. Robinson, Alli Gillespie, Jeremy Aldrich, Wafa Hassan et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study involved 69 refugee and resettled adolescents aged 14-20 from the Middle East and North Africa who are now living in the United States. Through focus group discussions, young people shared their ideas about how high schools can better support them after resettlement, both academically and emotionally. Students identified three main areas where schools could help: teaching skills to handle social and academic challenges, using culturally responsive teaching methods, and creating learning environments that respect different cultures and backgrounds. The research suggests that standard approaches to social and emotional learning may need to be adapted to better serve newcomer students from conflict-affected countries.
Key points
- Resettled refugee youth identified skills for navigating social and academic challenges as a priority need
- Culturally responsive teaching was highlighted as important for supporting resettled students
- Youth emphasized the need for socially and culturally equitable learning environments
- Conventional universal social and emotional learning models have limitations for conflict-affected newcomers
- Participatory ranking methodology was used to prioritize student suggestions
Limitations
This is a qualitative study of youth perspectives in three specific U.S. cities, so findings may not generalise to other resettled youth populations or geographic areas. The study captures what young people believe would help them, but does not evaluate whether implementing these suggestions actually improves mental health or academic outcomes.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: A growing literature has drawn attention to the central role that schools play in supporting the adjustment of resettled refugee youth and promoting their mental health and psychosocial wellbeing. In particular, the recent proliferation of school-based social and emotional learning (SEL) initiatives presents an opportunity to strengthen supports for resettled adolescents. This participatory research study aims to understand how high school students resettled from countries in the Middle East and North Africa region are experiencing the challenges and opportunities of acculturation and the ways in which they believe schools can better support them in this process. METHODS: We analyzed primary data collected during focus group discussions as part of the SALaMA study. During these discussions, we used participatory ranking methodology to elicit adolescents' suggestions on how high schools can better support students both academically and psychosocially after resettlement. Fourteen focus group discussions were held with male (n = 38) and female (n = 31) adolescents aged 14-20 years, who were selected purposively across six public high schools in Harrisonburg, Virginia, Austin, Texas, and Detroit, Michigan. Participants offered suggestions and then ranked them in order of importance using consensus ranking. RESULTS: Thematic analysis of the PRM results across sites produced a wealth of suggestions centered around three broad themes, namely: skills related to navigating social and academic challenges, culturally responsive teaching, and socially and culturally equitable learning environments. CONCLUSIONS: Findings reported illustrate limitations of the conventional, universal SEL model and shed light on how schools can adapt transformative SEL strategies to serve their students better, especially newcomers from conflict-affected countries.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Participatory research process to identify how schools can adapt social and emotional learning strategies to better support resettled adolescents through culturally responsive teaching, skills development, and equitable learning environments
- Population
- 69 adolescents aged 14-20 (38 male, 31 female) resettled from Middle East and North Africa countries, attending six public high schools in Virginia, Texas, and Michigan
Key finding
Three broad themes emerged from youth suggestions: skills for navigating social and academic challenges, culturally responsive teaching, and socially and culturally equitable learning environments
Stark et al. · Prof. Lindsay Stark (OpenAlex works) · 6 Sept 2021