Adolescents' Resilience During COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Mediating Role in the Association Between SEL Skills and Mental Health

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of social and emotional learning (SEL) skills and resilience in explaining mental health in male and female adolescents, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three self-report questionnaires were administered to 778 participants aged between 11 and 16 years (mean age = 12.73 years; SD = 1.73) and recruited from 18 schools in Northern Italy. The SSIS-SELb-S and the CD-RISC 10 assessed SEL and resilience skills respectively, while the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was used to measure mental health in terms of internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and prosocial behavior. We found that SEL and resilience skills were positively and significantly associated with each other, negatively associated with internalizing and externalizing problems, and positively related to prosocial behavior. Three linear regression analyses showed the significant role of resilience, age, and gender in explaining the variance of internalizing problems; the significant role of SEL skills, resilience, age, and gender in explaining the variance of externalizing problems; and the role of SEL skills, age, and gender in explaining prosocial behavior. Importantly, we found that resilience fully mediated the relationship between SEL skills and internalizing problems, partially mediated the relationship between SEL skills and externalizing problems and didn't mediate the relationship between SEL skills and prosocial behavior. The paper concludes with a discussion of the limitations of the study as well as its practical implications.

The effectiveness of a school-based, universal mental health programme in six European countries

“…Such programmes have been found to have an impact on all learners across individual factors such as age and gender and cultural and geographical background ( Durlak et al, 2011 ; Sklad et al, 2012 ). The findings in this study are consistent with the existing literature, but there are indications that the programme was more effective with early years and female students (except in externalising difficulties) ( Grazzani et al, 2022a ). Research does indicate that the early years are the period when children’s behaviour is most malleable and that SEL interventions are more likely to impact behaviour the earlier they start ( Durlak et al, 2011 ; January et al, 2011 ; Jones et al, 2015 ).…”

Adolescent social emotional skills, resilience and behavioral problems during the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal study in three European countries

“…Remote learning was used as an alternative to traditional education practice but was implemented with great variety and encountered several obstacles and challenges. First, the necessity to switch to remote learning was demanding for all involved in the education process – students, teachers, and parents [e.g., ( 37 , 69 )]. Remote learning was a challenge for the self-management skills of early adolescents.…”

“…However, if we consider the total Italian scores for social emotional skills and prosocial behavior in both informant reports, the scores have mostly the same trend, which is a decrease; emotional and behavioral difficulties tended, instead, to increase, as found in previous studies ( 1 , 13 , 15 , 40 ). It could be explained that because social emotional learning decreased, resilience decreased as well due to their strong and positive association [e.g., ( 37 )], and total difficulties increased in turn. Students were exposed to prolonged social isolation and intense negative feelings and experiences, which may explain lower scores in social emotional learning and resilience at T2.…”

“…Some studies on aspects of adolescent resilience during the pandemic found that variables such as cognitive appraisal and humor ( 36 ) or task-oriented and avoidance-oriented coping styles ( 35 ) seem to protect against the mental health problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A study conducted in Italy ( 37 ) found a significant positive association between social emotional skills and resilience skills. In turn, social emotional skills explained externalizing problems and prosocial behavior, and resilience skills explained internalizing and externalizing problems.…”

Multi-informant validity evidence for the SSIS SEL Brief Scales across six European countries

“…For many children, specific school-based supports can be a key factor promoting the acquisition of these skills (e.g., Durlak et al, 2011 ). Awareness of these conclusions is rising across the globe, especially in the context of the social difficulties posed by the COVID-19 pandemic ( Yoder et al, 2020 ; Grazzani et al, 2022 ). In the European context, increased attention and resources have been devoted to SEL and SEL programming for several years (e.g., Cefai et al, 2018a , b ).…”