Congressional briefing: universal benefits of school programs that bolster the behavioral health and educational success of our youth
The National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives (NPSC) and the FPG Child Development Institute, UNC are hosting a congressional briefing on the benefits to children of school-based programs designed to foster social, behavioral, and emotional development. People competent in these domains tend to do better in every aspect of life—from health to wealth. Federal and state educational policies that support the provision of these programs will ensure our children are instilled with the skills needed for them to succeed throughout life.
Children across the country have faced grief, uncertainty, and instability throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to unprecedented rates of learning difficulties and problems with mental and behavioral health. Because the brains and bodies of children and adolescents are continuously developing, their health and well-being can be negatively impacted by challenging circumstances, such as the COVID crisis. In the short-term, our children may have difficulty learning, developing healthy relationships, and managing their emotions. Longer term, such adversity increases risk for mental health disorders, substance abuse, unemployment, unstable relationships, and even chronic disease.
Alarmingly, even before the pandemic, the United States was seeing an uptick in youth mental health issues, with youth suicidal ideation or behavior up 44% between 2009 and 2018. And now, in the mist of the pandemic, rates have risen even further with nearly half reporting depression and other mental health symptoms, including thoughts or attempts of suicide. In tandem, young people feel disconnected from schools, even after returning to in-person learning. As seen in this figure, the costs of neglecting this issue are enormous.
Schools have a critical role to play in preventing these problems by supporting students’ emotional development and resilience through programs that build social, behavioral, and emotional competencies. Throughout the school day and outside of school, teachers can work with families to educate children in the five core competencies: self-awareness, situational awareness, ability to regulate emotion and stress, healthy relationship skills, and better decision-making. Incorporating such competencies into school routines curricula has been demonstrated to sustainably improve students’ abilities to achieve developmental and academic milestones, cope with stress, maintain quality relationships, and prevent mental and behavioral health problems, including substance misuse, violence, and suicide. These competencies have been successfully integrated into school systems across the country, from Texas to New York, and a variety of curricula are available that are acceptable to groups across the political spectrum.
