Programmes based on social emotional learning (SEL) have been effective in reducing psychosocial difficulties in a number of countries. In Mainland China, there has been no empirical research on the prevention of children's psychosocial difficulties using the SEL approach. This study aimed to assess whether an adapted version of the SEL programme can reduce psychosocial difficulties of primary school children in rural China. The intervention consisted of 16 weekly 90‐min class sessions, conducted among 206 children aged 8–12 years (with 290 controls) in a poor rural area of Central China. Self‐report questionnaires were administered at baseline, post‐intervention and 5‐month follow‐up. The results suggested that the programme (1) can reduce children's total difficulties (measured using the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire) at post‐intervention (d = −0.18) and 5‐month follow‐up (d = −0.19), (2) was more effective among children experiencing verbal abuse (d = −0.21) or physical abuse (d = −0.24) from caregivers and (3) was popular among more than 90% of the participants. The programme is cheap, easy to implement and can be delivered in school hours. Therefore, it has clear potential for replicability and sustainability.

Introduction: Many universal school-based social and emotional learning (SEL) programmes in the U.S. and Europe have been found to improve social skills and reduce emotional distress and behaviour problems. The aim of this study is to determine whether an adapted version of the SEL can reduce social, emotional, and behavioural difficulties in children in mainland China, using a pre-post intervention design. Methods: The study was conducted in a primary school in an economically-disadvantaged rural area in Henan province in central China. The intervention consisted of 16 weekly 90-minunte classroom sessions involving all 190 children in the school. Social and emotional problems were assessed pre- and post- intervention using the Chinese version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The results suggest that: (1) the programme can reduce children’s peer relationship problems, and that the reduction was sustainable at the two post-intervention assessments; (2) the intervention effects on emotional symptoms or total difficulties in the overall population are very few, but children identified as high risk in the initial assessment benefited from the programme. Conclusions: This is the first published report on the effectiveness of a school-based SEL programme in mainland China. Although the improvement are limited, the programme does benefit some children.