Can school-wide social and emotional learning reduce cyberbullying among adolescents?
To combat this trend, schools are increasingly embracing the school-wide social and emotional learning (SEL) approach in their antibullying efforts. School-wide SEL defines the entire school community as the unit of change; it aims to integrate SEL into daily school interactions and practices that include all staff, teachers, families, and children. However, there is a limited scientific understanding of the key factors that constitute the school-wide SEL approach and how they contribute to bullying’s antecedents and consequences. In comparison to physical, verbal, or relational bullying, much less is known about how schools can apply school-wide SEL to reduce the risk of cyberbullying.
In a large-scale survey study published in School Psychology, Chunyan Yang, Chun Chen, Xueqin Lin, and Mei-ki Chan used multilevel modeling to examine how two key components of school-wide SEL—school climate and an integrated set of SEL competencies—influenced 15,227 adolescents’ cyberbullying experience in 39 Delaware middle and high schools.