IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i3p771-d313201.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Enhancing Social and Emotional Wellbeing of Aboriginal Boarding Students: Evaluation of a Social and Emotional Learning Pilot Program

Author

Listed:
  • Linél Franck

    (Psychology Department, College of Health and Human Sciences, Charles Darwin University, Darwin 0810, Australia)

  • Richard Midford

    (Perth Psychological Services, National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University, Perth 6102, Australia)

  • Helen Cahill

    (Youth Research Centre, Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Melbourne 3010, Australia)

  • Petra T. Buergelt

    (School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health, University of Canberra, Canberra 2617, Australia)

  • Gary Robinson

    (Menzies School of Health Research, Centre for Child Development and Education, Darwin 0810, Australia)

  • Bernard Leckning

    (Menzies School of Health Research, Centre for Child Development and Education, Darwin 0810, Australia)

  • Douglas Paton

    (Psychology Department, College of Health and Human Sciences, Charles Darwin University, Darwin 0810, Australia
    School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health, University of Canberra, Canberra 2617, Australia)

Abstract

Boarding schools can provide quality secondary education for Aboriginal students from remote Aboriginal Australian communities. However, transition into boarding school is commonly challenging for Aboriginal students as they need to negotiate unfamiliar cultural, social and learning environments whilst being separated from family and community support. Accordingly, it is critical for boarding schools to provide programs that enhance the social and emotional skills needed to meet the challenges. This study evaluated a 10-session social and emotional learning (SEL) program for Aboriginal boarders and identified contextual factors influencing its effectiveness. The study combined a pre-post quantitative evaluation using diverse social and emotional wellbeing measures with 28 students between 13–15 years (10 female, 11 male, 7 unidentified) and qualitative post focus groups with 10 students and episodic interviews with four staff delivering the program. Students’ social and emotional skills significantly improved. The qualitative findings revealed improvements in students seeking and giving help, working in groups, managing conflict, being assertive and discussing cultural issues. The focus groups and interviews also identified program elements that worked best and that need improvement. Secure relationships with staff delivering the program and participation in single sex groups stood out as critical enablers. The findings lend evidence to the critical importance of collaborative design, provision and evaluation of SEL programs with Aboriginal peoples.

Suggested Citation

  • Linél Franck & Richard Midford & Helen Cahill & Petra T. Buergelt & Gary Robinson & Bernard Leckning & Douglas Paton, 2020. "Enhancing Social and Emotional Wellbeing of Aboriginal Boarding Students: Evaluation of a Social and Emotional Learning Pilot Program," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-16, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:3:p:771-:d:313201
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/3/771/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/3/771/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jongen, Crystal & Campbell, Sandy & Saunders, Vicki & Askew, Deborah & Spurling, Geoffrey & Gueorguiev, Eva & Langham, Erika & Bainbridge, Roxanne & McCalman, Janya, 2023. "Wellbeing and mental health interventions for Indigenous children and youth: A systematic scoping review," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    2. Newton, Lise & Keane, Carol A. & Byrne, Mitchell K., 2024. "Trauma-informed programs in Australian schools: A systematic review of design, implementation and efficacy," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:3:p:771-:d:313201. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.