A Research Study on the Effectiveness of Combined SEL & EBC Screeners

Stephen Elliott, Pui-Wa Lei, Christopher Anthony, and James DiPerna of SSIS CoLab conducted a research study regarding the benefits of concurrent screening of social emotional learning (SEL) skills and emotional behavior concerns (EBC). They were able to identify a more accurate, holistic understanding of a child’s social emotional well-being enabled through the use of the robust SSIS SEL Brief + Mental Health Scales, which screens for both SEL skills and EBC through one consolidated assessment. We are excited to provide a summary of their findings as well as the implications it has for schools and teachers in practice.

The importance of understanding the social emotional health of students has taken on an increasing urgency in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. With impacts on academic success, student mental health, and long-term outcomes, social emotional learning can support improvements in personal, academic, and professional attainment of students across the country. However, many universal screeners of SEL skills tend to omit the broader characterization of students’ well-being related to emotional behavior concerns (EBC).

Evidence suggests that the impact of administering SEL assessments, such as the SSIS SEL Brief (SELb) screener, in conjunction with EBC screeners lead to a better understanding of children’s social emotional well-being.

The 2021 study titled Screening the Whole Social-Emotional Child: Expanding a Brief SEL Assessment to Include Emotional Behavior Concerns (Elliot, Lei, Anthony, and DiPerna) found that screening for emotional behavior concerns, which can be both internalized and externalized, simultaneously with SEL skills will allow schools to better understand the whole social emotional child while reducing administrative, time, and implementation costs. Most importantly, it can allow schools to better address student needs, identify students with behavioral concerns who may have been overlooked due to high SEL skills, and enhance the development of each child.

A critical point made by the authors is that SEL assessments are strength-based and focus on the development of positive skills associated with better student outcomes.

There is also a commonly accepted belief that students with high SEL competencies are not at risk of emotional or behavioral problems. In other words, assumptions are made that all students with high SEL skills will not experience EBCs, and all students with low SEL skills will experience EBCs. However, this is purely speculative, and while some EBCs are externalized (e.g. aggressiveness, bullying) there are others that are internalized (e.g. anxiety, depression).

Not only would it be harmful to student well-being to assume that all students with high SEL skills do not demonstrate any EBCs, but these behavioral concerns also do not fit the strength-focus positive psychology guiding most SEL programs and could be missed. The authors warn that while SEL skills and EBC are related, they are not synonymous, and each should be targeted specifically within any screening tool.

Through their study, in which the authors test not only the reliability and validity of EBC scales but also how they relate to results of SEL screeners, they find that the EBC-E and EBC-I scales were valid, reliable, and useful complements to the SSIS SELscreener. EBC scales categorized students based on internalizing and externalizing behaviors as No Concern, Possible Concern, and Concern, while the SSIS SELb categorized students across Emerging, Developing, Competent, and Advanced competency levels focused on social emotional skills. The screeners were given to both students and teachers as is common with the administration of just the SSIS SELb assessment. As hypothesized, the additional EBC screeners brought to light a subgroup of the student population that would have been overlooked with just an SEL screener.

Based on the responses from both teacher and student respondents, the authors found that 3% to 15% of students in the Competent or Advanced SEL range also existed within the Possible Concern or Concern level of the EBC scales. In other words, the behavioral concerns of theses students would not have been uncovered with only SEL assessments.

Additionally, 4% to 11% of students who were rated as Possible Concern or Concern on the EBC scales were also rated in the Emerging or Developing SEL range, indicating that low EBC ratings did not guarantee limited SEL competencies. In summary, the authors find that the importance of concurrent SEL and EBC assessments is critical to developing a better understanding of the whole social emotional child.

In terms of the benefits of administering joint screeners such as the SSIS SEL Brief + Mental Health Scales, schools will be able to reduce administrative costs associated with distributing, analyzing, and summarizing two separate assessments. Students and teachers alike would also be able to reduce time taken away from instruction while not needing to familiarize themselves with two separate forms. Furthermore, the cost of implementing one combined assessment rather than multiple different screeners will be reduced, especially if these assessments will be administered electronically and require specific platforms or subscriptions. Simply put, concurrent SEL and EBC screeners produce efficiencies and benefits from both an administrative and student outcome perspective.

As schools continue to include the social emotional well-being of students in their mission, a better and more holistic understanding of the student is necessary to accurately identify, support, and develop students academically and emotionally. Tools such as the SSIS SEL Brief + Mental Health Scales will equip schools to better understand the needs of their students and drive targeted interventions that will improve student outcomes.

Learn More about the SSIS Social Emotional Learning and Mental Health Screeners here