Winding down the stressed out : social and emotional learning as a stress coping strategy with Norwegian upper secondary students

Abstract

A universal school-based intervention was developed to enhance coping with school-related stress by building students’ social and emotional competence. The intervention was carried out in six classes in three upper secondary schools in southwestern Norway, and covered mindfulness, self-regulated learning, and social competence. Three focus groups were conducted with a stratified selection of general education students (n=24) and one focus group with primary school teachers (n=6). Summative content analysis was conducted using NVivo Software. Findings indicate that the students perceived the core themes useful, and believed that the intervention increased their coping with school-related stress and to some extent improved their learning environment. Teachers’ perceptions supported these findings to some degree. Future directions for universal school-based interventions to build social and emotional competencies are suggested.