Benefits of SEL » Overview

Schools that create socially and emotionally sound learning and working environments, and that help students and staff develop greater social and emotional competence, in turn help ensure positive short- and long-term academic and personal outcomes for students, and higher levels of teaching and work satisfaction for staff.

A large body of scientific research has determined that effective SEL in schools significantly improves students’:

• Social-emotional skills
• Attitudes about self and others
• Social interactions

It also decreases their levels of emotional distress and conduct problems.

SEL is also associated with significant improvements in students’ academic performance and attitudes toward school. A landmark review found that students who receive SEL instruction had more positive attitudes about school and improved an average of 11 percentile points on standardized achievement tests compared to students who did not receive such instruction.

SEL prepares young people for success in adulthood. SEL helps students become good communicators, cooperative members of a team, effective leaders, and caring, concerned members of their communities. It teaches them how to set and achieve goals and how to persist in the face of challenges. These are precisely the skills that today’s employers consider important for the workforce of the future.

For more details on the documented benefits of SEL, be sure to see the other pages in this section:

• SEL & academics: Summaries and citations for the strongest available research demonstrating the positive impacts of social and emotional practices on students' academic achievement.
• SEL & prevention: Summaries and citations demonstrating how school-based social and emotional interventions reduce high-risk behaviors and promote positive youth development.
• Meta-analysis: A summary of the results and links to reports from the largest scientifically rigorous review of evaluations of social and emotional interventions ever conducted.
• Logic model: Graphic representation of how SEL produces positive outcomes for youth.